The Surprise
by monique42
Summary: Ch17 Up: Max & Alec come back from a year long mission with their baby. The growing familiar threat means that Max and Alec have to organise TC with the help of Max's family but when things get tough is their relationship strong enough to survive?
1. They're Baaack!

**The Surprise**

_A/N_: I am re-writing the chapters again just to help me refamiliarise myself with the finer details of the the story. No major changes though.

_Chapter 1: They're baaack!_

Logan Cale was excited. Max and Alec had left Seattle over a year ago for Vancouver where Logan had found out "New Manticore" was being set up and were finally getting back later that day. Although Logan would be perfectly content if Alec decided to stay in Vancouver for good he was thrilled at the prospect of having Max back, he had really missed her as in her absence there had been no one to share a bottle of wine with on a long, cold, rainy night. Of course the lack of company had not stopped Logan, he had simply propped up a mirror facing him and had intelligent conversations with himself. He was still annoyed that Max had been away for so long anyway. When he had found the information on New Manticore, Logan had told Max, assuming it would only take her a few weeks to destroy it. Looking back, he was unsure if he would have told her at all if he had known that not only was it going to take her about eight months to make sure that Manticore would be gone for good, but that she was going to take Alec with her. Logan didn't understand why, I mean Alec wasn't much help to anyone.

During the first few months of their separation, Logan had recieved weekly calls, if not more from Max but these gradually became monthly calls. In a one off call, Max had told Logan that it was going to take her and Alec five months more that they had planned. She hadn't explained why but Logan knew it must have been something big to hold two transgenics back that amount of time. During the other infrequent calls, she always sounded distracted and he got the feeling that she was rushing him of the phone, although he had no idea why. He had heard nothing from her for the past two months and he hadn't even know that she was coming home until Original Cindy mentioned it to him assuming that he already knew. He knew that something strange was going on but he didn't know what nor did he care just as long as he had her back.

So he had planned a romantic meal for two where he could catch up with his 'beloved' and listen intently to all she had to say so that she would fall in love with him all over again. He sighed contently at the thought then looked at the clock. 'Three O' Clock already,' he thought to himself. According to OC she would be back at half. He rushed into the kitchen to put on the pasta then started to set the table as he knew that his apartment would be her first port of call when she got back into town.

OC ran to the door when she heard the timid knock. Upon opening the door she put a hand on her hip and gave Max a tough girl look, "Since when do you knock?" OC quickly melted into a smile and gave a delighted squeal as she threw her arms around Max. "Good to see you too OC," said Max returning the hug.

OC stood back letting Max in, then closed the door as Max threw herself on the couch. "It's been far too long Boo! Where's all your stuff or do you just really travel light?" asked OC, sitting down beside her best friend.

Max grinned, "I just dumped all my stuff at Alec's then came right over. I really missed you, Alec wasn't really one for girly talks. I have this backlog of feelings I want to express about my hair."

OC laughed, "I'm not surprised and for the record your hair is looking good girl. So what's new with you? Did you kick Manticore's ass or what?"

"Damn straight we did," said Max. "Manticore can't event think about tring to regroup and well. . .quite a bit's new with me actually."

"We have been apart for over a year Boo, I'd be kinda annoyed if you had nothing major to tell me and we had to get straight on to the topic of your hair."

"Are you trying to say that my hair isn't important to you?" asked Max, with mock offence.

"No, I'm just saying that other things like some good gossip are more important. So come on girl, spill," said OC, sensing that something was up. Max just seemed different somehow but for the life of her OC couldn't put her finger on it. They had definitely been apart for too long.

Max took a deep breath, "Well you see when we were away . . ." She sighed as she was cut off by the sound of the phone ringing.

"Hold that thought Boo," said OC getting up and walking over to the phone, picking it up. "This better be important," she snapped down the phone, annoyed that the first time she had seen Max in over a year was being ruined by someone who was obviously less important.

/Cindy, it's Logan. Its half four and Max still isn't here. I'm beginning to get worried, are you sure she said she was coming back today/

"Yeah, she is here right now."

"Who is it?" Max mouthed over to her.

When Original Cindy mouthed 'Logan' Max frowned and mimed the motion of hanging up the phone. OC was confused but nevertheless did what Max said. "Look Logan I gotta go," she said hurriedly, hanging up on him before he got a chance to object. Max lifted her coat, grabbed OC by the wrist, and headed towards the door. "Come on. He will head over here now looking for me. We can talk at Alec's." With that, OC and Max left the apartment closing the door behind them.

"Hello, Hello? Cindy? Are you there?" Aggravated, Logan hung up the phone and started dialling again. No answer. He tried another ten times before slamming the phone down in frustration. 'Why is Max avoiding me?' He lifted his jacket, blew out the candles at the table with two plates of now cold pasta on them, and headed over to Original Cindy's.

"Now what was all that about?" asked OC as they entered Alec's building. "I thought you and Logan were soul mates and all that and now you aren't even talking to him?" she asked clearly confused.

"It's complicated OC," said Max with a sigh.

"Well you better uncomplicate it for me 'cause you are not leaving me in the dark on this."

OC stopped walking and put her hands on her hips as they reached Alec's door. Cindy watched her friend carefully, raising an eyebrow when Max pulled a key out from her pocket and unlocked the door to Alec's apartment. "I'll explain everything inside," she promised, holding the door open for her best friend.

"You better," said OC entering the apartment.

When inside Max flung her jacket to the side and set her keys on the table then went straight to the bedroom. When she came out she put her finger up to her lips. "Shush!" she said to OC who was now sitting on the couch making herself comfortable. "Alec's asleep," she explained, closing the bedroom door as quietly as she could. "He drove all the way back."

"I wasn't expecting him back at all! I mean you two alone for that amount of time? Please! I was reasonably confident about a week in you were finally going to crack and snap his pretty little neck in two. If he was coming home, I was expecting it to be in a body bag or little pieces. You know with him here alive and unharmed your bad-ass rep could go down the drain! I mean he drives you mad when he's on good behaviour, never mind having to live with him for over a year!"

"Yeah well a lot has happened this year, I don't really know were to begin," said Max.

"Well why don't you start by explaining to me why you are sitting her with me, at Alec's instead of dining with Mr. Eyes Only?" suggested OC.

"Really? Wow!" exclaimed OC when Max nodded. "So when exactly are you letting your face in on the good news , hell or even Logan? Then you two could celebrate by finally getting down to business."

"I don't want to tell him because if I do he will want to get back together," Max explained.

"And you don't want to do that?" asked OC who was getting more confused by the second.

"Yeah, it's just that . . . " began Max.

All of a sudden crying came from the bedroom followed by a loud groan. A few moments later OC watched in amazement as Alec came into the room bouncing a baby in his arms.


	2. Explanations, well sort of

**The Surprise**

A/N: This chapter has now been revised as well. Although the storyline is still the same I changed quite a bit of it.(31/03/2006)

_Chapter 2: Explanations...well sort of._

Original Cindy shook her head, trying to sort out whatever it was that she was sure was impairing her vision. Things looked the same. She blinked a couple of times hoping that would be the remedy but when she opened her eyes Alec was still standing in front of her holding a baby. Original Cindy opened her mouth several times as if she were about to say something but then closed it again. For the first time in her life, Cindy was speechless.

"Um...hi, OC," said Alec sheepishly, secretly enjoying the sight of Original Cindy's mouth hanging open like it currently was. It was not very often that the 'all knowing' Original Cindy was caught off guard.

"Here, give her to me," said Max walking over to Alec with her arms ready to receive the baby, then making soft, comforting cooing noises in an attempt to pacify the infant. OC's expression changed from shock to anger when her brain finally registered what was happening. She got up, marched over to a drowsy Alec and slapped him around the back of the head, just as she had seem Max do numerous times. "What have you done!" she demanded to know. "I can't believe this...I need to sit down." Max could not help but crack a small smile at her best friends transitory emotions. She could hardly blame her though, there was no way even the great OC could have saw this one coming. "I guess I'd better explain," said Max eventually. "I see we've kind of thrown you into the deep end here."

"Yeah, you could say that," said OC.

"If you ladies don't mind I'm going to head back to bed," said Alec, noticing that the baby had calmed down and drifted off back to sleep in Max's arms.

"OK," said Max, handing the child over.

"Woah, wait that there pretty boy," said OC. "You aren't getting off that easily."

"Come on OC, can't you interrogate me tomorrow? I mean after you get the details from Max you'll be better prepared to pulverise me," said a sleepy Alec.

Original Cindy considered this for a moment before nodding her head in agreement. All she wanted to do now was talk to Max anyway, she had so many questions and she damn well needed the answers. "OK, I'll let you off this time but tomorrow you and I are having a conversation."

"Looking forward to it," Alec assured her with a grin. "Night." Alec took the baby back into the bedroom, closing the door gently behind him and OC's attention snapped back to her best friend. "So you are a mother? I mean unless I took this whole thing wrong and there is a sane, logical reason for all of this that doesn;t involve you and Alec getting your groove on. It is Alec's right? 'Cause he was looking all Papa Bear."

Max smiled, overwhelmed by the barrage of questions. "Yes I'm a mother and yes, Alec is a father."

"Thank God I sat back down or you could knock me over with a feather," said OC. "Now either I'm having some serious memory lapses or you've been holding out on me!"

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you," said Max sincerely, sitting down beside her confused friend. "But I just didn't know how to. I mean when I rang you, we would talk about the mission and how things were getting along at Jam Pony without me, how much we missed each other and then one of us would have to go. Besides I thought telling you over the phone would be so impersonal."

"It would have been better than not telling me at all," OC muttered.

"I know and I am sorry OC, but what was I supposed to say? 'Hey Cindy, you know the way there is a fine line between love and hate? Yeah well I'm having Alec's baby.' Didn't quite have the right ring to it," smiled Max.  
"So this's why you were avoiding Logan," said OC, as a few things clicked into place. "And why your mission took those extra four months and whatever."

"Yeah, once I found out I was pregnant Alec didn't want to risk me going on the late night raids but I did anyway up until I reached seven months but the Alec insisted on doing it by himself which meant it was going to take twice the remaining amount of time," Max explained.

"Well he was right you know," said OC. "You should have stopped raiding or whatever the second you found out you were pregnant."

"Alec would agree with you there," said Max. "But I can be very stubborn, not the mention very persuasive. I pretty much got Alec wrapped around my little finger."

"OK so on to the next can of worms-you and Alec? What the hell happened there? I mean are you two together now or was it just one of those 'We were unbelieveably drunk this one night' things?" asked OC.

"No, we're together," said Max.

"How did that happen and how did you two end up having a baby together?" asked Original Cindy.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to get this talk from your mother?" asked Max with a cheeky grin.

"What the whole 'When two people love each other very much . . .' thing?" said OC. Max nodded."Well that's the bit Original Cindy doesn't get. Before you two went off gallivanting, you were ready to kill each other! The line between love and hate ain't that fine."

"See that's the thing, I don't think I ever really hated Alec, I mean yes he was annoying, well still kind of is actually," said Max, on reflection. "Yes he was a pain in the ass but I think we just got off to a bad start and then he made things worse and I had to keep bailing him out and eventually I just labelled him as a screw up and stuck with it. He just became the easiest person to blame for well...everything I guess."

"So what changed your perspective?"

"A lot of things I guess, like simply spending time with him without already having decided that I was pissed of with him and just taking the time to get to really know him," expplained Max. "It just started out with little things, like after a few days I realised he was thoughtful in his own way. Then after a week I noticed how funny he was. About a month in I realised that he was smart. He has educated opinions and can talk about serious things at length and with passion. I just started to see different sides of him and realised that I liked him a lot more than I thought."

"Hold it there Boo, are we talking about the same guy here? I mean I have always kind of liked Alec but it has been in spite of his selfish, arrogant ways."

"Alec isn't the bad bass he likes to think he is," said Max. "He was a considerate side as well. Yes Alec is arrogant and selfish but that's how he spent twenty years of his life being trained to be. Sometimes it is esy forget that he has not been out in the real world as long as I have. He still has a lot to learn and a lot of traits that Manticore engraved in his brain that he needs to get rid off. I mean all my little realisations about him made me realise that he wasn't a bad guy but there was definitely a turning point."

"I have got to hear this story," said OC, settling in.

"About two months in, we were on our usual nightly raid. It was just supposed to be like all the other ones; get in, get more information and get out. You'd be surprised at how easy it was, though I guess that seeing as they thought no one new that they exisited they weren't too big on security.

Anyway, this one night we had agreed to get the plans for new transgenic breeds out of one of the lab computers. Alec was going to watch the guard's station a few corridors away while I broke into the main lab and download the files onto a disk. The files we wanted had a more complicated security system than I had anticipated and I should have just left it and came back for it the next night when I had more time to work on breaking it but I thought I could bypass it. Needless to say I was worng."

"What happened?" asked OC.

"The computer alerted the security guards at all of their posts that someone was trying to access high security files and they sent off the alarms. Every guard in the building was headind in my direction and blocking off all of my exits when Alec broke into the nearest room to take some of the heat off me. With some of the guards distracted I was able to find a way to the exit. I radioed through to him to see where he was, he told me to get out and meet him back at the appartment, that he would not be far behind me. I tried to argue with him but he said he had enough on his mind trying to escape without worrying if I was OK, so I gave in and went."

"I guess he is as stubborn as you are," said OC with a knowing smile. She had always suspected that Alec had a bit of a soft spot for the woman who was always beating him up but as it turned out she had no idea how far gone he really was.

"Seems that way," said Max. "I couldn't believe that he was worried about me enough to stick it out alone and I found it even harder to believe just how worried I was about him. Once I got back to our place I just kept pacing up and down, fighting the urge to bo back. I was never so relieved in my entire life as I was when he walked into our apartment half an hour later."

"Well what do you you know," said OC. "So how exactly did you go from realising that you cared about him to playing Happy Families with him?"

"Well when he returned that night I was so mad at him for making me as worried as I was and I..." Max stopped her story mid sentance as a knock on the door interrupted her her. "Why am I always been interrupted tonight?" she asked with a frown, getting up to answer the door.

"Yeah," mumbled OC, "and always when you are getting to the good part."

Max opened the foor to find an angry Logan at the other side. "What are you doing here Max? Why didn't you call me when you got back and what are you doing at Alec's?" he yelled.

"Logan, keep your voice down," she pleaded in a hushed tone, realising he might wake the baby and probably Alec, and then there would be hell to pay.

Logan paid no attention to her as he stormed further into the room and continued his rant. "No, why should I? I was worried out of my mind when I rang OC's and she hung up, I thought White had found you!" As he continued to yell at her, Max retreated to the sofa where OC had planted herself, realising that Logan was going to have his say regardless of anything she said. "I mean dammit Max!

He stopped, confused, as the sound of a baby crying echoed into the room.

"Now you've done it," muttered OC.

"Max what is that sound?" Logan asked, bewildered. "What is that?"

"Logan there is something you should know..."


	3. Gay Boy Logan

**The Surprise**

**A/N:** This chapter was redone on 31/03/06

_Chapter 3: Gay Boy Logan_

"What the hell was that?" asked Logan for the third time.

Max briefly considered explaining it to him but rationalised that if he was not smart enough to figure it out on his own then that was not her problem, besides she had other things to do. Walking past a gaping Logan, Max headed for the bedroom to hush the baby and tell Alec to roll over and go back to sleep, an offer which she was sure he would gladly accept.

Logan stood there and listen to the crying. His ears knew what he was hearing but his tiny little brain simply refused to accept it and so tried to come up with a logical explaination for what could only be described as an infant's crying that did not involve his beloved Max jumping into bed with Alec. Needless to say, Logan and his tiny brain failed in this task.

Original Cindy could not help but sit back and enjoy the show. Not that she was in on the loop she could afford to find great amusement in Logan's shocked expression. 'I hope my mouth didn't hang that far open,' she thought to herself as Max came out of the bedroom a few minutes later, quitely closing the door behind her. Max took in Logan's stance and general appearance, silently willing him to say anything other than 'What the hell was that?'

"What the hell was that?" asked Logan, with perfect comedic timing before slipping back into a daze as he tried to figure out what was going on. Max, who was now very frustrated with him stomped towards him and clicked her fingers in front of his face. "Sanp out of it!" she demanded. "And learn a new phrase! I really don't appreciate you just standing there in whatever crazy person's trance you are currently in, repeatedly asking 'what the hell was that?' 'That' as you so degradingly put it is my daughter!"

Hearing the actual words seemed to do the trick as Logan looked at her, straight in the eye. "Your...your...daughter?" he asked in a stutter.

"Yes my daughter, Alec's too."

"Alec's!" fumed Logan. "You hate Alec, you can't have a child with Alec!"

"Try telling that to our baby," said Max, "I think she would have a slightly different perspective on the entire matter. Though of course she won't be able to tell you herself for another couple of years."

"Max, I love you," said Logan. "So I think that after some time I can come to terms with the fact that you betrayed me and had a child with another man. I'm still willing to make this work between us."

"How kind of you," said Max, sarcastically. "Unfortunately, I'm not. And as for 'betrayl' I told you well over a year ago that we were over. Just because you didn't want to accept it doesn't change that it is true and not that it is any of your business but Alec and I are together now so there really is no hope of us giving things another shot."

"What about everything I have done for you?"

"Excuse me? Everything you have done for me?" asked Max, incredulous to what she was hearing. "You promised me that you were going to find my brothers and sisters and in return I would go on some missions for you. I more than kept up my end of the bargin and you most certainly did not. I risked my life for you and your stupid missions and you did not do the one thing you had said you would, I was nothing more than your personal cat burglar."

"How can you say that Max? It's Alec, he's poisoned you mind, you love me really, I know it! He has turned you into an ungrateful wench."

Fuelled by anger Max slapped him across the face. Logan was horrified and OC had a huge smirk on her face. Logan put his hand up to his face and started shrieking. "Max, Max! The virus! Your killing me!"

He flung himself up against the wall then slid down onto the floor where he curled himself up into a ball and began to rock back and forth, tears pouring down his face. "This is it; there will be no more Eyes Only! Who will look out for the common people now? I can feel the poison seeping into my blood stream, your killing me! You killed the only free voice left in this city. I hope your happy with yourself."

Max and OC watched on, their expressions a mixture of horror and amusement as Logan whispered the words, "Peace out," as he closed his eyes and stopped screaming.

"Get up you fool!" said Max lifting him of the floor. She hurried him out the door. "I cured the virus, so cut the hysterics you drama queen!" With that, she closed the door in his startled face. Hearing a chuckle, she turned around to see a sleepy looking Alec standing with his arms crossed, "I always though he was gay, now I see my suspicions were correct and I can finally say, 'what the hell were you thinking?'" 

Max frowned sternly at him but it could not resist the adorable pout that had now appeared on his lips. "Did we wake you?" she asked breaking into a smile.

"Yeah but it was totally worth it to see that," said Alec.

Walking over to him Max wrapped her arms around him and leaned in for a kiss. "Woah!" yelled OC. "Still not used to that yet so can you cut it out for just a min. OC promises to adjust eventually don't worry but you have to let the rest of this stuff sink in first before throwing new things at me." OC got up and grabbed her coat. "Look, I've gotta blaze, all the excitement has tired me out ya know, so I'll catch ya tomorrow Boo." She gave Max a hug. "Its good to have ya back. We can finish that little discussion then and please no more shocks, for a while anyway. Original Cindy's system couldn't handle another one. Oh and Alec, be good to my girl cause I like you and don't want to have to put the smack down on your ass."

Alec smiled, knowing that even with her army training OC would be not match for him. She had reached the door when she turned back around. "One more thing, what's Baby Boo's name?"

"Jen," smiled Max.

"'Jen,'" said OC, letting the name roll off her tounge. "I like that. Later." Original Cidy opened the door to reveal Logan still whimpering in the hallway who upon seeing Max yelled, "What about the pasta!" OC closed the door behind her, shaking her head at his pathetic figure and mumbling "Damn fool."

"So what are we going to do tomorrow? We can't both go to work," said Max knowing that as much as she didn't want to they had to start being practical.

"I'll go in and you can stay here and mind Jen," stated Alec simply.

Max became very pissed off very fast. It didn't matter that was her preferred scenario but he fact that Alec had just assumed that that was how it was going to be annoyed her. Alec obviously had some sexist idea in his head that men went out to work while the women stayed at home washing, cleaning and raising the children. She had to put a stop to that now.

"Excuse me? The last time I checked we were living in the year 2024 and women had equal rights and did not just sit about the house all day waiting for their . . ." An amused Alec cut her off. "Maxie, no need for the women's lib speech, seriously, I didn't mean it that way. I mean think about it. We left for over a year without saying a word to Normal. Who is more likely to get our jobs back?" Max broke into an embarrassed smile, slightly ashamed that she had assumed the worst from Alec, a particularly nasty habit she had seemed to pick up when she first met him and was having a hard time stopping. "I mean if I go in well he will be ecstatic. His Golden Boy has returned, Hallelujah, praise the Lord! However if you go why it's just 'missy miss' approximately 11,763 hours late for work!"

"Sorry, I get carried away sometimes," Max said feeling a little embarrased.

"I guessed that."

He pulled her into a big bear hug and rested his head on top of her, smelling her freshly washed hair. They stayed like that for a while, content in each other's embrace only pulling away when Alec started laughing. "What?"

"I'm just thinking about Logan."

"Well whatever does it for you," teased Max.

"Oh come on Maxie his reaction was classic! 'You've killed the voice of the people, peace out,'" Alec imitated, before giving another chuckle.

"It was pretty funny," she admitted.

"Funny? It was hysterical!"

"OK you're right, what was I thinking," said Max.

"Glad you are coming around to my way of thinking Maxie."


	4. Back to Normal

Chapter 4: Back to Normal  
  
A/N: Here it is oh and in case anyone was actually wondering don't worry the story does develop some actual plot soon . . . I swear.  
  
______________________*****_________________________  
  
"Oh my God! I don't believe it!"  
  
Alec had to suppress his laughter as Normal threw himself onto the floor in front of him. Just when he thought that he was going to start kissing his toes Normal finally got up but only to fling his arms around Alec.  
  
"Golden boy your back!"  
  
His amusement changed to disgust and Alec had to try his best not to shudder when his former boss tightened his grip. Five minutes later when Normal showed no signs of breaking the hug Alec realised that something had to be done. "Normal I won't be back for long if you don't get off me, right now," and miraculously Alec had his own personal space back within a matter of seconds.  
  
"So can I have my job back then?" he asked pretty sure he knew what the answer would be, but he had to butter him up to get him to take Max back.  
  
"Hell yeah! I missed you ya know. With you back I will be able to get a break from the good for nothing miscreants that 'work' here."  
  
"Oh and can Max have hers back too?" Alec asked, pouting in an attempt to seal the deal.  
  
"Oh so missy miss is back as well. So why isn't she here?" asked Normal folding his arms. "I mean the two of you just disappeared for over a year without a word, I'm assuming yous were at the same place, and yous just come back wanting your old jobs back. I mean you, being the wonderful human being that you are, had the decency to come and ask for your job back in person, not that you needed to ask but still. So what did she have to do that was so important that she couldn't come beg in person?"  
  
Alec smiled, this would be fun.  
  
______________________***************_____________________  
  
"Boo?" called OC as she walked into Max and Alec's apartment. Normal had been so happy to have his Golden Boy back that she had asked him if she could have the rest of the day of and he had actually said yes. Alec had felt bad for dropping the baby bomb on Normal so was working to the end of the day to make up for it, as he felt that he had been chancing his arm anyway.  
  
OC wanted to talk to Max before he came rushing home to see his daughter as she was now sure he would. She still couldn't believe how much he had changed. She would have never in a million years have pictured Alec as a family guy and yet when catching up with Sketchy and the rest of his friends he spent a lot of the time telling them about Jen.  
  
"I'm in here OC!"  
  
OC found Max in the kitchen with Jen in one arm resting her head on her shoulder as Max heated some milk in a saucepan.  
  
For the first time OC noticed just how pretty Jen was. She already had a head full of dark hair and Max's colouring but she had Alec's bright blue eyes with flecks of green in them that would become more noticeable through time.  
  
"Why aren't you a cute boo now that you're awake and not crying?" said OC bending over so that she was level with her. "Can I hold her?"  
  
"Be my guest."  
  
Max watched with a smile as OC took Jen and sat down bouncing her on her knee. "Her milk is ready, if I put it in a bottle for you do you want to feed it to her?" she said taking the saucepan of the cooker.  
  
"I think we have more immediate problems right now."  
  
Max turned round to see a look of distaste on OC's face as she sniffed Jen while scrunching up her nose.  
  
___________________****************______________________  
  
"Hey Alec! Are you going to Crash tonight?" asked Sketchy, running to catch his friend before he left for the day.  
  
"Nah Sketch, don't think so."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Alec looked at Sketchy with one eyebrow raised and an expression on his face that clearly indicated that he thought Sketchy was mad. "Have you heard a single word I've said today?" he asked wondering if Sketchy just had started having memory lapses instead of being completely thick.  
  
"Oh well," said Sketchy catching on. "So how about we come round to yours? A few drinks, a few friends, a bit of music. What do you say?"  
  
'No, just completely thick' Alec sighed mentally. "Sketchy, it is blatantly obvious that the very idea of a baby goes right over your head. They need constant care and attention and as much peace and quiet as possible, especially at night which is a time were you pray with all your might that they sleep for more than three hours at a time, which by the way the usually don't."  
  
"Well do you wanna go for a few drinks now?" asked Sketchy hopefully.  
  
"Sorry dude, I have to go relieve Max of parental duties."  
  
After seeing the hurt look on his face, Alec went on trying to reach a compromise. "I know you just want to see your friends so I will see if I can talk Max into going to Crash tonight and you can catch up then ok? See ya later!"  
  
Alec walked off leaving a bewildered Sketchy. "So is that a no?"  
  
___________________***************__________________  
  
"There!" said OC holding Jen up triumphantly. Max had spent the past fifteen minutes showing OC how to change a nappy because OC said that she had wanted to learn so that she could baby-sit and give Max and Alec a chance to get out together.  
  
OC's face dropped when the nappy slid right off and Max started laughing. "Stop it! Just cause you have maternal instincts doesn't mean that Original Cindy is going to be a natural at this."  
  
"Well I wasn't too bad but . . ." Max's face lit up at the memory of it. "Well let's just say that you are a 'pro' compared to the first time Alec did it. Now that was funny!" She wiped away imaginary tears of laughter before deciding to help OC out by fixing Jen's nappy.  
  
"He was just so frustrated, he went through a whole pack trying to get one to stay on and when he couldn't he was just like 'We got a faulty pack! I thought they were a bit cheap.' He refused to accept hat he couldn't do it! I mean one time he put it on backwards the next upside down and God knows what else! Poor Jen, she didn't know what the hell was going on, cause I couldn't even help him cause I was laughing that hard! And the harder I laughed the madder he got and the madder he got the harder I laughed. He was like 'it's not like they took me out of sniper training and taught me how to change nappies!' It was just so damn funny! In the end he got a roll of sellotape and kept wrapping it round and round, we had to cut her out of it later! "  
  
"Well that makes me feel better knowing a soldier that was trained from no age couldn't do it either . . . a bit anyway." OC admitted. "It's good to know that I'm not the only one not naturally good with babies."  
  
"So did Alec get our jobs back?" asked Max.  
  
"Of course, Normal quite literally fell down on to his knees when he saw Alec. He wasn't exactly ecstatic bout you, but still. We're all glad though cause he is so happy that he is letting people do what ever they want. You should have seen his face when Alec told him about you and Jen. It was classic!"  
  
"It's good to know that Alec's charms still work on Normal, always comes in handy," said Max mentally picturing the scene OC had described with a wide grin on her face.  
  
"I should warn ya boo, Normal's not the only one glad to have Alec back as a few of the Jam Pony females showed today. They were hanging all over him."  
  
"I'll kill them and then kick Alec's ass all the way back to Canada!" exclaimed Max, standing up, ready to go.  
  
OC laughed at her best friend's reaction. "Sit down you fool, you've got nothing to worry about girl, Alec set them straight. I hate to admit it but I was surprised and touched at the same time, he's totally devoted to ya Max. you've really struck gold with this one."  
  
"Yeah I know and it's weird cause he was under my nose all that time," said Max sitting back down, slightly embarrassed.  
  
"You, however will have to watch out there, you seemed a little too eager to believe that Alec was being disloyal," observed OC.  
  
"Yeah, bad habit, I think I kind of miss ragging on him and threatening to kick his ass all the time!" laughed Max, handing Jen back to OC.  
  
"Huh, I coulda swore this child just grinned at me, exactly like Alec does!"  
  
______________________*************_____________________  
  
Logan sat in front of his computer staring blankly at the screen. He was still getting over the shock of the night before. 'How could she have chosen him over me?' He had spent the day comparing himself to Alec and had begun to think that there must have been something wrong with the air in Canada.  
  
'Why else would she have gotten together with Alec?' That was when he thought of something he hadn't before. 'She must have been in heat! Yes, that was the only reasonable explanation. Otherwise, she wouldn't have left an incredibly handsome do-gooder like himself for a good for nothing screw up like Alec.  
  
He immediately began to plan a way to get her back and to make her see the error of her ways.  
  
________________________***************__________________  
  
When Alec entered his apartment, he heard Max and OC talking in the kitchen.  
  
". . . and then Alec goes 'Yeah, if it wasn't for the fact that you just tried to kill me and Max here, I'm sure that we would be the best of friends,' then kicked his ass Manticore style."  
  
OC smiled. "Well if Original Cindy could only say one thing bout the boy it would be that he does have a sense of humour."  
  
"Why thank you OC I do try," said Alec making them aware of his presence, a cocky lopsided grin firmly on his face.  
  
"Hey Alec, enjoy work?" asked OC smugly.  
  
"Oh, ever so much. By the way in case I forget, thanks for abandoning me with Normal earlier, just when I though that I could at least catch up with my good friend OC on my runs. I guess you just don't value our friendship like I do," he said with mock hurt.  
  
"I guess not, listen Boo, gotta blaze. I'll see you later."  
  
OC grabbed her jacket and hugged Max before giving a general nod in Alec's direction, only to burst into a fit a giggles soon after. Seeing Alec's confusion and checking for something on his face, Max tried to hide her smile but failed. After looking back and forth between them, Alec caught on.  
  
"You told her about the nappies didn't you?"  
  
Max nodded, "I had too," she protested, "I haven't been able to tell anyone else and it was burning a hole inside of me being the only one who knew."  
  
"How? On the drive home alone, you told the guy at the gas station, the waitress at the restaurant, the . . ." Max listened as he went through, what turned out to be a very long list, hanging her head in fake shame. ". . . and they all laughed in my face!" he concluded, waving his arms around for dramatic effect.  
  
"Aww, poor baby. Manticore's finest couldn't handle a little embarrassment." She patted him on the chest. "See ya later OC, sorry we didn't get to finish our little discussion from yesterday."  
  
"'s OK Boo. See ya!"  
  
When OC had left, Alec snaked an arm around Max's waist from behind. "So, did you have a nice day?" he asked, snuggling into her hair. She nodded. "How is Jen? Is she sleeping?"  
  
"Yeah, OC's nappy acrobatics tired her out." Alec rested his head on her shoulder and Max sighed contently. "Alec?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I've been thinking."  
  
"Aww, I told you not to, you almost collapsed from the pain last time," said Alec sincerely.  
  
Max pulled away, giving him the good old one figured salute and led him to the couch. When settled Alec put his arm around her.  
  
"Do you thing Jen will have our abilities? I mean there is a chance she'll be normal right?"  
  
"Max, can you really define normality?"  
  
"Alec . . ."  
  
"To be honest Max I don't know. I mean there is always a chance that she will be 'normal' but I don't think they're very high. I mean there's no barcode but we don't know if that really means anything and it is really too early to tell. Why, would you really want her not to be able to go all 'Matrix' on people's asses?"  
  
"Alec, don't joke around, I'm being serious," said Max lightly punching him on the arm.  
  
"So am I but Max, it doesn't matter if she does or doesn't. There are pros and cons either way, but if it really matters that much to you, we'll take a DNA sample and bring it down to Dr. Carr and get a DNA work up."  
  
"Thanks," said Max kissing him before snuggling in closer, taking comfort in his nearness. "So what's this I hear bout you and Normal in a passionate embrace?" she asked.  
  
__________________********************_______________________  
  
A/N2: Ok I know that was a little pointless but I need to get things set up to get things going. Oh and until the new chapters start, (Ch 15 being the first) I will post these chapters every Thursday and Monday so look out for them, but don't worry the new chapters are a work in progress! 


	5. Max's Surprise

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 5: Max's Surprise  
  
_________________________******______________________________  
  
Max sat in front of the apartment door with her arms wrapped around her knees and her feet flat on the floor. She was wearing red pyjama bottoms and a grey T-shirt. Her hair was in a loose ponytail with a few strands that had escaped from the band holding them in place tucked behind her ear.  
  
Alec was in the kitchen making coffee for him and Max, both of them enjoying one of those rare moments when there was silence that allowed them to concentrate only on their own thoughts. Alec looked up and frowned when he realised that Max was still sitting where he had left her last night. He hadn't really noticed when he had first got up but that was probably due to the fact that . . . well . . . he had just got up.  
  
Both of them had been up until three in the morning and when Alec had finally went to bed Max had been sitting in front of the door. In fact he seriously doubted that she had even moved an inch, and he knew why. The results of Jen's DNA workup would be delivered toda so after two weeks of waiting Max was really worried so had kept herself up all night. Not that she wouldn't have been up anyway. He sighed, poured a cup of coffee, and brought it over to Max.  
  
"Here." Max looked up and took the cup of him gratefully, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Thanks," she whispered. Alec walked away as he knew that at this stage there was nothing that would make Max feel better apart from having the results in her hand.  
  
"Have you actually moved at all in the past few hours?" he asked, concern evident in his voice. "Yeah, at about six there was a fly that was buzzing about, it had to die," said Max, slipping back into her trance. She had spent the last few hours worrying herself into a frenzy. She still wasn't sure what she wanted the letter to say despite her best attempts at soul searching.  
  
She had watched Jen closely looking for anything that might mean that she would be a transgenic, even though Alec told her that she wouldn't be able to tell until she was a few years older. She had contemplated what it might mean for Jen if she was, if her life would be totally screwed up because she had genetically superior parents. Although Alec had not said anything she knew that he had wanted Jen to have their abilities, knowing that it would mean she would always be able to look after herself and though that idea comforted Max, she couldn't help but remember what a horrible childhood she'd had.  
  
Max's pulse began to race as she heard the elevator doors open and footsteps beginning to walk in the direction of the apartment. Alec was immediately alert too, getting up and staring at the door. Max was also on her feet and opened the door before the messenger began to knock.  
  
Max acknowledged her with a nod, as she knew her from Jam Pony. She whipped the clipboard out of the messenger's hands and Alec tossed her a pen as she signed quickly. "OC wanted to deliver it but Normal wouldn't let her saying that it was just an excuse to chat with her friends," said the girl flashing Max a knowing smile. She handed the envelope over and Max shut the door in her face before she started talking again.  
  
Max moved silently to the couch where she sat down beside a now nervous Alec. Max ran her fingers around the edge of the envelope, which felt like it contained a good few pages thick of information. "So the moment of truth," said Alec weakly but Max hardly noticed as she was concentrating on the package in her hands in a way that was not unsimilar to a soldier sizing up it's opponent.  
  
The large, brown envelope was sealed on all sides and although Max had spent countless hours delivering them she had never realised how intimidating they could be to this very moment. Despite the fact that all she had wanted to do was rip the envelope open to reveal its' contents Max couldn't bring herself to do it. "I can't, you do it," said Max as she gave up trying to summon the strength to open the envelope and handed it over to Alec who ripped it open immediately and began to read aloud.  
  
"Max and Alec, sorry it took so long, had to make sure this wasn't put on the wrong desk. I did a full work up of Jen's blood and DNA she will develop transgenic abilities with time and they will be to the same standard as yours. The abilities will progress in exactly the same way as your own."  
  
Alec stopped after this and looked up to see Max's reaction. She gave a slight smile before motioning for him to continue. "We have also discovered that her DNA has only feline additives, like the both of yours. Otherwise she is a perfectly healthy baby. Hope you got the result you wanted, Sam," Alec finished. He flicked through the next few pages. "They are just all the technical details and results. Shit are you ok?"  
  
"Yeah, better than I expected actually. The relief of knowing pretty good as well," she said with a yawn. Alec smiled and leaned over, and brushed the fallen strands of hair out of her sleepy eyes before wrapping his arms around her. "Get some sleep, even shark DNA needs to rest sometime," he said softly, kissing the top of her head,  
  
Surprisingly Max went towards the bedroom without any argument where she soon feel into a deep, contented sleep.  
  
___________________***********___________________________  
  
Three Months later.  
  
_______________________****************__________________ A girl with long black hair and an athletic figure walked into Jam Pony. She had blue eyes and after looking round the room noting the people, doors and general layout, she walked right over to the dispatch desk as if she owned the place.  
  
"Hey! You with the glasses, can I have a word?" she called out to Normal who was reorganising the employee files. "Sorry, no jobs available at the moment," he said without even bothering to look up. "Actually, I'm looking for someone who works here. Her name's Max, Max Guevara." This however caught Normal's attention and his head jerked up immediately.  
  
He gave the girl the once over as if he was deciding to tell her what she wanted to know or not. "What do you want to see her for?" he asked, curious at why some stranger had come looking for Max. "We are old friends, we go way back. The girl was like a sister to me before we lost touch," she explained, with a smile and a casual stance, quite similar to Max's.  
  
"She's not into today. I could give you her address if you want."  
  
"That'd be great, I really need to talk to her."  
  
Normal began to shuffle through the files on the counter until he finally came to Max's. "Okay, she lives at . . . oh wait I haven't updated this yet. She's living with Alec now."  
  
"Way-hey go Max . . . so can I have that address then?"  
  
"Sure," said Normal rhyming it of without looking at the file.  
  
"Mmm ok then, thanks," said the girl, walking of a little creeped out.  
  
______________________*************______________________  
  
Just for a change, Logan was sitting in front of his computer staring intently at the screen. He had spent the past few months watching Max and Alec, how they behaved around each other, their daily routine and just general stuff that could help him win back Max. At first, he had thought that it would be an easy task but the more time he spent watching them the more he realised that she honestly thought that she was in love with him. Logan mentally 'pahed' at the idea of Max being in love with Alec when he was waiting for her.  
  
He had managed to hack into the surveillance cameras at Jam Pony and had pretty much forgotten about Eyes Only as he struggled relentlessly to think of ways to get Max back. From watching her he had learnt lots of new things about her that he hadn't known before so all he had to do was use them to his advantage and she would be his once more.  
  
That was when he realised what he had to do. The one thing that Max hated the most was disloyalty. All he had to do was make her think that Alec was cheating on her or betrayed her in some way and she would come running to him for support. 'It shouldn't be too hard, he always used to be a screw up. Old habits die hard.'  
  
It would be about here that if Logan was any kind of a man that he would began to laugh evilly. There was silence in the apartment only broken by the tapping of computer keys.  
  
________________________**************______________________  
  
Max moaned hearing the door being knocked. "Piss off!" she yelled rolling over. She had been unusually tired recently and Alec had taken Jen out to give her a chance to get some rest but as the knocking was becoming consistently louder, Max gave in and got up. "Someone is so about to get there ass kicked," she mumbled as she tumbled out of bed, heading for the door.  
  
Max swung the door open and came face to face with the girl who had been in Jam Pony earlier. After studying her familiar looking features, Max realised who it was. "Jondy?"  
  
"Hey Max." As Max flung her arms around her sister, she could not help but feel that something was wrong. "Hmm, after twelve years surely you could have thought of a better greeting than simply 'Hey Max'"  
  
Finally letting go of each other Max stood back and let her sister in. "What can I say; I had other things on my mind on the way over." Jondy rubbed her forehead and when Max saw the worried look on her face, she decided to inquire further.  
  
"Look, as much as I would love nothing more than to sit and have one of those long, girly, heart warming talks about the events if the past few years, I can't help but get the feeling that this is not just a social visit."  
  
Jondy smiled. "Ah I forgot, you always were the intuitive one. Not being one to beat around the bush I might as well tell you that I'm here to bring you back to San Francisco with me." When Jondy saw the look of shock on Max's face, she hurried on before she began to argue.  
  
"Everyone is meeting up there in three days. As you know the transgenic situation is getting out of hand and we have a had a few close calls with this bad ass called White though I'm sure that by now you are acquainted." Max nodded so Jondy continued glad and not having to explain. "We have decided that we have to do something about it. Kat and Zane are pushing for us to go somewhere the other side of the country where he can't find us, so although we still have to make the final decision that is probably what will happen."  
  
Max felt anger bubbling up inside her. She couldn't believe that they were going to hide and that they expected her to all right with it. "No way! We can't just leave them to fend for themselves. Running would be taken the coward's way out and for some reason I seriously doubt that genetically engineered soldiers were designed to run away when things get too hard."  
  
"Look, I know you have a problem with this but we need to look after our own unit and . . ."  
  
"And there is no way that as soon as I get my life back into order and that I am truly happy that I am going to pack up and drag my ass across the country because you are afraid."  
  
Jondy was getting irritated. She knew Max would be against it but this was too far. Was Max so selfish that it did not occur to her that the rest of them had lives that they were going to give up as well? Determined to get Max to see that she could just start a new life somewhere else she decided to challenge what was keeping her in Seattle.  
  
"Give me one perfectly good reason why you can't move and start over." Hearing familiar footsteps nearing the door Max smirked. "I'll give you two."  
  
_____________________***********________________________  
  
Jondy was still in shock by the time she had reached Original Cindy's apartment. Max and Alec had offered their couch but Jondy was partial to the simple comforts like a bed. So Max had phoned OC and told her everything.  
  
Granted Jondy wasn't sure what to expect of Max after not having seen her for twelve years but from what Krit and Syl had said she was too much of a free spirit to be a family values kind of girl. Therefore seeing her with a live-in boyfriend, who just happened to be the twin of her dead brother, and a baby came as quite a surprise.  
  
Original Cindy handed her a cup of coffee. "Thanks." "So you took this whole baby thing hard as well?" she asked eager to get to know one of Max's sisters.  
  
Jondy could only nod. "It took me about five minutes to stop saying 'holy shit.' It was just such a shock to the system, I know that you have known her for ages but surely you weren't expecting it either."  
  
"Not expecting it? That's an understatement, the shock of it all almost turned Original Cindy straight. I'm still not sure how it happened." When Jondy raised an eyebrow OC muttered something about her being too much like Max.  
  
"Look we could talk this to death but you travelled all the way from San Fran so maybe you should get some rest." But Jondy only shook her head. "Nah, like Max I'm also cursed with shark DNA. That's why we were the closest, we always stayed up late, talking. So, tell me what Max is like. I know she is my sister but I don't know the grown up Max."  
  
"Well she is headstrong, always willing to help and unbelievably stubborn. She's the kind of girl that doesn't take crap from anyone and always calls it how she sees it. Although she'd never admit it she is afraid. I know you wouldn't think it but she is." This confused Jondy. "Trust me, after today I find it hard to believe that Max afraid of anything."  
  
"She's afraid of letting people in. She thinks that if she lets people in it will make her weak, that's why she was always so secretive and that's why I think her and Alec ended up together. She had no need to be secretive with him. He knew her past so she couldn't hide it, even if she wanted to. He understands what she went through because he went through it himself. That is why when he first got out they hated each other so much, they both knew that they wouldn't be able to keep each other out and put on that mask that all you transgenics do so well. So when they finally stopped trying to keep up the barrier to hide behind, they realised what good potential there was for a strong, healthy relationship. Not even of the romantic sort, but I'm glad that it did turn out that way."  
  
There was a silence in the room as Jondy thought about Cindy's reflection. "You Cindy are a very insightful person," she finally said. "Well, I have to admit that those little pieces of knowledge are usually best when they are concerning Max and Alec. Those two have so much emotional baggage they need someone on the sidelines to show them what is really going on."  
  
Jondy got up and gave Cindy a hug. "Thanks I really needed that. Now tell me about Alec, I'm sure he is all right cause you seem to like him and it seems like you are a very good judge of character."  
  
"As apparently so are you," said OC, laughing. They both spent the night talking about anything and everything before finally giving in at around three and going to bed.  
  
Jondy smiled as she flopped on to Max's old bed. She really liked OC and it seemed that Max really had made a good life for herself in Seattle. Jondy went to sleep looking forward to catching up with her sister, playing with her niece and interrogating Alec of course.  
  
___________________*************__________________ So what ya think? Please review! 


	6. Friends and Siblings

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 6: Friends and Siblings.  
  
Summary: A road trip and finally the story of how Max and Alec got together. Sorry that I gave you a bit in the second chapter and left it there. Okay so this isn't part of the summary but meh.  
  
____________________************________________  
  
Everyone was up when Jondy entered Max and Alec's apartment the next day. Max was cooking breakfast and Alec was sitting on the couch bouncing Jen on his knee, watching TV. "Aren't you a little old for cartoons?" she asked.  
  
"You're never too old for cartoons," said Alec, slightly resentful at the implication. "Besides, they are for Jen." This caused Jondy to roll her eyes and mumble about how guys never seem to grow up. "Jen must really be absorbing it, you know, not even being one and all," she whispered to Max who couldn't help but give a small laugh.  
  
"Yes, cause I can't hear that at all," said Alec sarcastically. "Besides it really is for Jen, she is a genetically enhanced child by the way so I will not have you insulting her intelligence."  
  
Jondy saw that he was watching the old cartoon Roadrunner. "Don't you really want the coyote to get him?" she asked trying to catch him out.  
  
"With all my heart I do. Just once would be enough, as long as one episode doesn't include that stupid blue creature beeping after narrowly dodging a boulder I would die a happy man."  
  
"I thought you weren't watching it?" Realising he had betrayed himself Alec retreated. "I'll have to back to my original reply that you are never too old for cartoons," he said huffily.  
  
"Speaking of original how's Cindy? Was she okay that I just rang her up and sent you over?" When both Alec and Jondy gave her a strange look, she sighed at her pathetic attempt to change the subject and the even worse connection between the two things. "Continue, I just don't like arguments in the mornings."  
  
"Actually I think we are done," stated Jondy, "I'm pretty sure I just won." The triumphant look was too much for Alec to bear. "Well since you are SO mature why don't you explain to the rest of the class how you knew what I was watching?" When Jondy's face dropped, Alec continued. "And how did you know what it was about and share the need to see the coyote get him?"  
  
It was now Alec's turn to wear the smug look. Jondy glared at him and at that moment in time Alec was glad that looks couldn't kill. Max looked between them. "Anyone for pancakes?" she asked almost wishfully.  
  
All of as sudden Jondy started laughing. Seeing Max, who she had always remembered as the tough one with the kick-ass attitude to match in full Susie homemaker mode, with a cartoon-watching boyfriend who had just beat her at her own game, was just to much for her. So she did the only thing her brain could think of to do in what she saw as such a ridiculous situation. She laughed. A lot. So much so that when she had finally stopped laughing (several minutes later) that Max and Alec were sure that there were only two possible explanations. She had either had forgotten to take her medication that morning or had overdosed on it.  
  
Knowing that an explanation would only make her seem like more of a lunatic (if that was even possible at his point) Jondy headed towards the table asking where the maple syrup was, while wiping the tears from her eyes.  
  
______________________***************_______________________  
  
Over breakfast, they talked about their plans for the following week or so. They decided to go to San Francisco to meet up with the rest of Max and Jondy's unit so that they could make a decision about what to do, though Max was still firm that she was not going to 'run away'.  
  
Alec was going to go to Jam Pony to tell Normal that they would be away for a while as he really did not think that them running of again without telling him as going to keep them their jobs. Even if Alec was his Golden Boy, surely Normal was bound to have some limits. For some other reason, unbeknown to Alec, Jondy had decided to go with him.  
  
"So how did you meet Max?" she asked as the walked there. Alec grinned, "When Max got recaptured Manticore there was a breeding program because she had blown up the DNA lab and well she had the good fortune to have me assigned as her breeding partner." Seeing the look of shock on Jondy's face, he continued. "Then she kicked me in the stomach, called me Alec because she said I was a smart aleck and well the rest is history." Jondy raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Well somewhere in between I gave her a virus that would kill her boyfriend, thought about killing her and constantly annoyed her in general. She spent that time hitting me, kicking me in the balls and well . . . apart from a certain lap dance, a lot of physical and mental abuse in my direction."  
  
"So love at first sight?" Alec laughed and Jondy noticed the twinkle in his eyes that made her feel more relaxed with him. "I like to think of it as the bonding period," said Alec. "We just needed some time to get to know each other properly before we realised what we had."  
  
"In all seriousness do you love her?" asked Jondy, stopping. Without the usual mocking smile, Alec turned to face her. "Of course I do, would we really be like this if I didn't?" he asked.  
  
"Hey I'm just looking out for my sister cause I mean I like you Alec, you seem really cool and all but that won't stop me kicking the living shit out of you if you ever hurt my baby sister in anyway. Understand?"  
  
Slightly frightened by the serious side of Jondy, Alec nodded eagerly, and muttered a "yes mam." They began walking again, and there was silence for a few minutes before Jondy poked him in the side. "So if you love her then why haven't you got off your lazy, cheapskate ass and got her a ring?" she asked, back to her normal bubbly self, determined to make Alec squirm.  
  
_____________________**************________________________  
  
"Hey girl! Look who came to see you!" Original Cindy looked up and smiled when she saw Max with Jen in her carrier coming through the door. "Hey Boo, how are you?"  
  
"Exhausted, I spent all morning packing." OC rolled her eyes, "Where are you off to this time?"  
  
"San Francisco, I'm finally going to meet all my brothers and sisters again!"  
  
"Well you better not come back with another child because Original Cindy has decided she doesn't like surprises."  
  
"I doubt I will be gone that long, just a couple of days, a week at the very most."  
  
OC listened attentively as Max then explained about Jondy and the plan. "So Alec and I are going with Jondy to help them come up with a solution that does not involve leaving the rest of the transgenics to fight the cause on their own," Max concluded.  
  
"You know I was just thinking before you came in, it has been over a month since you got back and you still haven't finished telling me how you two got together and it's been a while . . . start from the start."  
  
"Okay, so we had just raided the facility, I had left him behind and when he finally got back. . ."  
  
~~~~##FLASHBACK##~~~~  
  
When she heard the door opening, she ran over, flung her arms around Alec, and hugged him so tight that after a minute he had to say, "Max I may be an X5 and all but much longer of this all the air will be squeezed out of me and then no more Alec, and we all know what a shame that would be."  
  
She reluctantly let go and then pulled herself back to arms length to inspect his body for injuries. He had a minor cut on his head and there was a slight tear in his jacket but apart from that, he seemed fine. "You know Max, I know I'm hot and all but I'm sure you could've found a better time to check me out."  
  
He laughed as she hit him on the shoulder where thanks to her there was a permanent bruise, but she couldn't help but grin the way he managed to make light of every situation. "I'm off to bed, see you tomorrow Maxie."  
  
As he took off his jacket and flung it on to a near by chair Max gasped as she saw blood rushing from his arm from the area where there had been a hole in his jacket. "What?" asked Alec turning round.  
  
"You're bleeding; I'll go get the supplies."  
  
She headed towards the bathroom and came back with bandages, tweezers, cotton wool and antiseptic. "Take off your shirt," she ordered. "Geez Max you certainly do pick your moments," he remarked, earning himself a whack around the back of his head so he decided to do as he was told.  
  
"The bullet hit the bone, how could you not have noticed? For that matter they were only guards, how did you mange to get shot in the first place?" Max demanded. "I mean I know you weren't exactly Manticore's finest but really Alec I didn't know you were slipping that much," said Max as she sterilised the tweezers before putting them into he wound, trying to get a grip on the bullet.  
  
Alec bit back the pain. "Almost as soon as I had taken down the guards, two X-6's came after me and one of them shot me. They might have caught me but when they realised it was me they paused so I used that moment to trip one, disarm the other and run for it."  
  
"There," said Max as she removed the bullet, went, and dropped it into the sink with a clink. "So are you going to admit to other injuries or am I going to have to frisk you?" she asked.  
  
"Well as tempting as that sounds Maxie . . ." Cut off by Max's glare, Alec cleared his throat and did the sensible thing. "No, well none that need any medical attention."  
  
Accepting this, she put antiseptic on the wound before dressing it, without anymore sarcastic comments. "There, you can put your top back on now." Alec picked it up of the seat. "Honestly Max, anyone would think that you didn't enjoy the sight of me half naked." Earning himself another slap Alec then tried to put on his top. After watching these feeble attempts rather amusedly, Max finally went to help him.  
  
She went to pull it over his arm, "Watch it," he yelled protesting.  
  
"Oh for God's sake you are such a baby. You didn't even notice you got shot, you barely winced when I took out the bullet but now you complain?"  
  
"What can I say you have a shitty bedside manner," retorted Alec, trying to move back in an attempt to stop her from pulling it over but Max, merciless as ever went after him causing him to lose his balance. And to Alec's amazement Max let out a scream before going into fits of laughter, as they both went toppling on to the bed, with her landing on top of him.  
  
As such an opportunity would be unlikely to present itself again, Alec unable to resist the temptation began to tickle Max. She gave out an unexpectedly loud girlish scream. "Stop it, stop it!" she begged but Alec carried on relentlessly, not caring for the consequences that this would result in, as he decided it would be worth it. After several attempts to get him off her Max finally managed to flip him over again, and pin him down reversing their positions.  
  
When both of them stopped laughing they realised just how close they were. Max let out the breath that she didn't know she was holding before leaning down and kissing Alec. It was just a simple lip-to-lip kiss then she pulled back to see Alec's reaction. Her only reaction was his lips meeting hers again.  
  
~~~~~~~~##END FLASHBACK##~~~~~~  
  
"Wow, that was so . . . childish, so . . . innocent, so . . . not what I was expecting," said OC.  
  
"Yeah I know, that's what made it so weird. It was as if in that single moment all the bickering and fighting and teasing had all been some sort of unintentional foreplay cause it was something that couldn't have not been realised before. I felt like I was a different person."  
  
"You know Boo, I think you are. You're happier for a start and not always moping about. Alec's different as well but you know we can get into that another time. You gotta go."  
  
Max hugged her and took Jen back from OC. As she was about to leave OC called after her, "And Boo, for the record, Original Cindy saw it coming for months before either of you did."  
  
"Sure Cindy," said Max, closing the door with a smile.  
  
_______________________*************________________________  
  
When Max entered the apartment later that day, Alec and Jondy were sitting on the couch laughing. "That is one of the funniest things I have ever heard," said Alec between laughs. Acknowledging Max's presence he said, "Your sister is just one of the funniest people I have ever met." Blushing slightly, Jondy playfully punched him on the arm. "Well you're not exactly boring yourself, that story about the food fight . . . brilliant."  
  
"Well as much as I hate to interrupt your appraisal of each other we better get going. Alec you take Jen and I'll get the bags." As Max went into the bedroom to retrieve their stuff Alec, Jen and Jondy headed for the car.  
  
_____________________******************___________________  
  
After several hours on the road Alec, Max and Jondy still hadn't ran out of things to talk about. Max had been surprised when Alec let Jondy drive his car but it made sense she guessed, as she knew exactly where they were going so she didn't make a big deal about it.  
  
Jen had slept most of the journey and everyone else was really enjoying each other's company. Max decided to ask Jondy about the rest of her siblings. "So, what has Krit and Syl been doing since I last saw them?" Jondy grinned, "Uh, each other actually." "What?" Max practically yelled. "It's like incest! Are they not aware that they are siblings?"  
  
"Well, they're not really. It was just something that we made up when we were kids to try and give our selves that tiny bit of normality we wanted. We may be as close as brother and sisters but we aren't."  
  
"You know," said Alec. "I always found your whole sibling thing a little . . .off. I tried explaining to Max that yous weren't really related but she refuses to accept it. trust me don't bother you are wasting you breath."  
  
"It's just sick that's all, as you said we did grow up as brother and sister," said Max shuddering at the idea. With an evil grin Jondy said, "Well, family tree-wise you're dating your brother's twin who is therefore also your brother."  
  
There was silence in the car before Max proclaimed that she was very happy for Krit and Syl and saw absolutely nothing wrong with the situation at all. "That's a girl," said Alec patronisingly to Max, before sharing a high five with Jondy.  
  
After another few hours of driving, they were finally there. Jondy stopped the car outside a big house on the top of a hill. The lights were on and Max could see silhouettes moving around the rooms through the blinds.  
  
Getting out of the car, Max took a deep breath as she walked up the driveway. She was worried and excited, she knew they were bound to have all changed since the last time she spoke with them so she really didn't know what to expect. She opened the door and heard yelling. "For Christ's sake Zane, do I have to do everything for you?"  
  
'Then again,' she thought. 'Some things never change.' She paused in the hall, recollecting her thoughts. Max finally, walked into a large room to the left of the hall. It was busy with people running about and she watched in amusement as Jace threw popcorn at Zane and Kat and Krit fought for control of the remote.  
  
She leaned in the doorway, no one noticing her until Jondy, who was carrying a now wide awake Jen, came up behind her. "Max, when the door is open you can actually walk through it. They were made like that."  
  
The noise in the room came to a stop as everyone turned to look at Max. There faces lit up as everyone made a rush to hug her. Syl made it first and Max felt relief wash over her as she let her sister hold her. When Syl showed no signs of moving Zane said, "Oh screw it, group hug!" Not having it in them to disobey orders they all crowded around Max, glad to have their little sister back.  
  
___________________***********_______________________  
  
I know I know, took me long enough, what can I say maths coursework is a bitch. But I am off this week so to make it up to you if I get enough reviews I will post the next chapter like immediately. 


	7. Sibling Rivalry

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 7: Sibling Rivalry  
  
Summary: Alec meets Max's siblings and they hatch a plan. Lol, hatch.  
  
_____________________***************_____________________  
  
When the group hug ended, Jondy finally got in the door with Jen. "Whoa Jondy how'd that happen? You were only gone for a few days," joked Kat.  
  
"Very funny, she's Max's." Everyone turned back round to look at Max, surprise obvious on their faces.  
  
"So Max spill, how did you do it?" When Max raised an eyebrow, Jace rolled her eyes. "No details please, just . . ." Alec walked in the door and the majority of the people in the room's heart missed a beat.  
  
"Ben?"  
  
"Oh, no, no, no, no," Alec hurriedly, "I'm his twin 494, Alec for short." After the first, few minutes of everybody staring at him Alec began to feel uncomfortable. "Twin, you know as in looks the same but really not. As in I'm not Ben, I'm his twin," said Alec.  
  
"Alec! Do me favour and shut up," said Max who was worried that he wasn't making the best impression. "You can leave the bags in an empty room upstairs," said Jondy who couldn't stop smiling at her siblings reactions.  
  
As Alec went upstairs, still rambling quietly about twins, Max was left to fill in the past ten years or so of her life that she had gone through without seeing these people that meant so much to her.  
  
____________________********____________________  
  
Logan pumped his fist in the air. He had finally done it; he had finally beaten the computer at solitaire. 'Intermediate level here I come,' he thought proud of his achievement.  
  
He celebrated by watching the video clip that he was sure would secure his place in Max's heart once again. He had hacked into Jam Pony surveillance and had been watching it intently for a number of weeks, searching anything that would be of use to him in his little personal mission and so far, he had come up dry. Until yesterday, that was, when he had saw Alec walk in with a beautiful young brunette he had not seen before. She and Alec looked close, they had been talking and laughing and she had left with him as well. Max had been nowhere in sight.  
  
Therefore in Logan's demented little mind Alec was obviously cheating on Max with this woman. He began thinking about the best way to tell Max without letting her think that he was telling her intentionally. 'Anonymous phones call perhaps? No, not very original. I could let Alec know that I know and put pressure on him to tell her before I do. However, that would take too much time.' He went through various other options but due to lack of brain cells, none of them were very good. 'The phone call it is.'  
  
He went to his state of the art phone and messed with the signal so that it could not be traced back to him. After a few rings with no answer, he hung up. 'Ah well, will do no harm to wait. It'll give Alec time to dig himself into a deeper mess.'  
  
Deciding to have something to eat to celebrate his victory over the computer, he went into the kitchen and looked through his cupboards. 'Hmm let's see. Will I have spaghetti or tageatelli? However, I do have penne . . . oh and pasta bows. Aren't I just spoiled for choice! I'll just whip up a nice creamy sauce and fetch a bottle of pre-pulse wine. Why Cale you old charmer, how'd she ever resist you!?' giving himself a wink in the mirror he went back to preparing dinner for himself.  
  
______________________**************_____________________  
  
After staying up most of the night to catch up with her brothers and sisters Max was happy. They were still a little freaked out about Alec but were supportive of her and told her that they hoped she knew she could always count on them if she needed anything.  
  
Alec seemed to be getting on great with them. Upon seeing how close he and Jondy seemed to be already, they had decided that he must be an 'alright guy' so had simply accepted him without any questions asked. The only little blip in the evening was when Alec had been left alone in the kitchen with Krit and Zane. He had came back in looking pretty annoyed and Zane and Krit were looking all together pleased with themselves. 'Probably gave him the "if you ever hurt my little sister" speech,' she thought as she rubbed her eyes. Now at eleven thirty everyone was beginning to get up.  
  
There was plenty of yawning and half-mumbled "Good mornings," as they came in and planted themselves on the nearest available seats. She watched amazed that they could be tired, they were trained to go several days without sleep and they had several hours of it.  
  
Knowing what Max was thinking Jace sat down beside her. "We don't all have shark DNA you know." After another yawn she turned round and yelled into the kitchen, "Where the hell is the coffee?"  
  
"God you sound like Alec. He's not really a morning kind of person either. There is not much talking to him until he gets his daily dose of caffeine," said Max.  
  
On cue, Krit came in with enough cups for everybody with Syl behind him carrying a kettle full of the coffee, which the tired transgenics treated like the divine ambrosia itself, with most of them perking up instantly from their first sip.  
  
Alec came in, taking a cup off Krit before sitting on the other side of Max who greeted him with a kiss. "Morning," she said resting her head on his shoulder and snuggling in closer to him. "Where is Jen, surely she's not still sleeping?" she asked.  
  
"No, Jondy wanted to get her ready, said she wanted to spend some time with her niece," he said.  
  
"Right then," said Kat taking charge and bringing the quiet bantering in the room to a stop. "As soon as JONDY GETS HER ASS DOWN THE STAIRS, we can start to discuss our course of action."  
  
"Kat, it's too early. Can't we wait until we are all awake?" whined Syl, with her eyes still half closed. Kat ignored her and when Jondy did appear within a minute of Kat yelling for her, she decided to continue any way.  
  
"As you know there is only one idea that has been put forward so far and that is for all of us to move to the other side of the country where it is highly unlikely that White will ever be able to find us again but none of you seem to agree. As much as you hate my plan none of you have came up with another solution."  
  
Choosing this moment to appear with Jen, Jondy rushed into the room giving Kat an apologetic look. Giving Jen to Max, she hurried over and sat down on a stool in the corner.  
  
"We cannot just sit around and wait for a solution to present itself. Therefore unless anyone can come up with a better idea that is what we will be doing," Kat concluded.  
  
"Wait a minute did I miss something?" asked Jace. "Why should we do what you tell us to? You're not our CO."  
  
"Yeah but Zack is off tending pigs and someone had take to charge and I am the oldest," she argued.  
  
All hell proceeded to break loose as everyone started arguing about who should be in charge.  
  
"Well I was acting CO," said Jondy putting in her bit.  
  
"Well I was SIC and with Zack down that puts me in," was Max's argument.  
  
This went on for another few minutes or so with everybody putting their own case forward until Alec got tired of it. "That's enough!" he yelled. The room became silent as everyone stopped bickering and turned to look at Alec.  
  
"For the love of God yous are all acting like children! You can't just fight about who is going to be the leader all the time, you should be beyond that. Now if you want to play soldier and pull rank I got you all just by experience among other things so how about you all shut up, sit down and listen to each other and act reasonably. You call each other brother and sister and yet you fight like cat and dog."  
  
"Hey," said Jondy. "Haven't you ever heard of sibling rivalry?" This lightened the mood considerably and everyone calmed down and decided to talk things through rationally.  
  
"Everyone put in any ideas they have, decide what's best, take a vote and majority rules," said Alec calmly as if he was talking to a bunch of three year olds rather than the fully trained super soldiers that filled the room.  
  
"Look," began Max. "I think we, all of us, should go to Seattle. We need to take action against the familiars and the only way we can do that is with an army. Since Manticore is just outside of Seattle most of the transgenics ended up there, I think most of them live in and around Terminal City so it shouldn't take too long to round them up. We could work with them and devise a plan to wipe out the familiars before they come after us. Plus with us all in the one place it will be harder for us to be picked off one by one, safety in numbers and all that."  
  
Everyone looked around at each other to see what everybody else thought. Then, slowly everyone began nodding.  
  
"Sounds good to me."  
  
"Hell yeah, a plan I can relate to."  
  
"Finally, someone with a good idea."  
  
"Let's do it."  
  
"Seattle here we come!"  
  
Then they all turned to Kat. After much consideration she smiled, "Count me in. thank god someone else took charge. You all know I'm more of a take it easy girl anyway," she said as everyone began laughing and joking glad to have finally decided on something.  
  
______________________**************_______________________  
  
"Is anyone else a bit pissed off that we have only been here one day and we are already heading back to Seattle?" asked Alec who started loading up the car with their bags and a few other of Max's siblings.  
  
"Oh sorry, well I'm sure we can push back wiping out a race so that you can have another few days in San Francisco," said Max. "I was just saying," he mumbled. "Are you trying to tell me you aren't just a little bit annoyed that you didn't get the chance to climb the Golden Gate Bridge?"  
  
"No, after all I never said we wouldn't be making a little pit stop," said Max, leaning back, allowing Alec to wrap his arms around her and pull her close, something he tended to do more frequently recently and Max was not going to complain. She needed a bit of comfort now and again and Alec could be really sweet when he wanted to, well when he wasn't busy being a smart- ass. She turned around, put her arms around his neck and kissed him, only stopping when Krit and Syl started clearing their throats loudly.  
  
"If you don't mind we have to share the car with you so if you could kindly refrain from doing that it would be greatly appreciated," commented Krit.  
  
"Oh please! Don't pull that with me! You know as well as I do that yous are just after doing the exact same thing upstairs," said a knowing Max, slightly miffed that they had to stop.  
  
"Yeah but at least we had the decency to do it in private," said Krit.  
  
"Just get in the car," said Max, opening the door, and ruffling his hair as he got into the car.  
  
Everyone had started preparing for the journey to Seattle once they had ate breakfast. Krit and Syl would be going in Max and Alec's car and Kat, Jace and Jondy where in Zane's. They would have to leave their bikes in Jondy's garage.  
  
Max had been amazed when she found out that the house had been Jondy's. It appeared that her sister had been doing pretty well for herself. The house was huge, hey, it had been big enough to house the nine of them and the gardens were quite big as well. Jondy apparently had a great legal mind and had spent quite a number of years as a lawyer.  
  
Everyone was nervous about the journey ahead; in a way, it almost felt like going back to the beginning. They had managed to lead relatively normal lives and now they were off to fight side by side with the rest of their kind, an act that would distinguish then from the ordinaries for the rest of their lives.  
  
The drive itself was enjoyable, both parties telling more stories and sharing past experiences with Syl just doting on Jen. That night everyone crowded between Max and Alec's which was claustrophobic at the best of times when there was only the three of them and Original Cindy's place as no-one felt like splitting up too much for the purpose of comfort.  
  
Soon the floors were covered with empty sleeping bags, blankets and pillows as everyone was on top of the Space Needle. They stood in silence for ages, just watching the lights of the city and the people passing through the different streets, and the thick fog that seemed to loom over tomorrow's destination. . . Terminal City.  
  
"So really," asked Alec. "What is it about you people and heights?"  
  
______________________**************_____________________  
  
there ya go so plz review! 


	8. Tough Crowd

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 8: Tough Crowd  
  
A/N thanks to everyone who reviewed, they were very much appreciated! *cough do it again cough*lol, well you heard the woman.  
  
______________________*************____________________  
  
The next day everyone was ready to go and Max had taken OC up on her offer to baby-sit as she thought that having a baby in her arms might not make her seem very persuasive, not to mention the chemicals she could be exposed to in Terminal City. Max just wanted to be sure that it was safe before she brought her daughter there for any amount of time.  
  
Max was really worried, this was the first time she had left Jen with someone that wasn't Alec and she couldn't help but feel kind of panicky, even though she was sure that her best friend would do a great job. 'Well as soon as she gets the hang of nappies anyway,' she thought with a smile.  
  
Nevertheless, with the help of Alec, she had somehow managed to leave Jen and head out with the others. As they walked up to the gates of Terminal City, everyone was quiet and a little creeped out. Before they had even gotten within a metre of the gate, a shotgun was pointed at them through a hatch. "What do you want?" asked the owner of the gun, sending a puff of smoke out of the hatch and towards them.  
  
Max stepped forward, turned round and lifted the hair of the back of her neck showing him her barcode. "We are X-5, we want to talk."  
  
"About what?" came the snappy reply.  
  
"About organising a course of action that could save our kind," said Max diplomatically.  
  
"Our kind?" the gate swung open and the transgenics came face to face with what appeared to be a sort of lizard nomilie who was puffing away on a large cigar. "That's rich," said the talking lizard. "How about you go two streets down and cross over to Oak Street and talk with 'Your kind' as I'm sure you will find them much more co-operative."  
  
"Well you don't seem to be interested so I think we will just do that," said Alec stepping forward and taking Max by the arm before she could protest signalling for the others to follow.  
  
As soon as they were out of sight Max pulled herself out of Alec's grip. "What the hell Alec? Why did you give up so easily I'm sure we could have persuaded them to at least here us out!"  
  
"And I'm sure we couldn't have because from the way the cigar smoking lizard guy was talking, I kinda got the feeling that they were all nomilies in there and they don't exactly have 'warm and fuzzies' for the X-Series. We were always put ahead of them at Manticore so I seriously doubt that since they don't have to put up with that anymore that they are going to take orders from us."  
  
Max was getting angrier by the second and the patronising tone Alec had used when talking to her had not exactly helped. "Well done Alec, you have just proven them right and it is that type of prejudice that will prevent us from winning this war. We can't afford to fight against ourselves."  
  
"Just when did you start sounding like you should be working in the White House? But that's not the point, perhaps if we go and sort things out with the X-Series and get them to go along with our plan we can come back to Terminal City and show them that even though we have 'our kind' on our side, that we still want them as well. Oh and we can mention the fact that we came to them first, which should also go down well. It would probably make them feel needed, more important and a way of showing that it will not be the same as at Manticore, that they will be treated as equals."  
  
There was silence as Max thought this over. She looked round and everyone else was nodding, showing their support for Alec's plan. If she tried to undermine Alec by putting his plan down and making up one of her own, it would just be because of her own stupid arrogance and she would be throwing a perfectly good idea out the window. She just hated admitting that she was wrong.  
  
"Fine," she said "but if we can't get them I'll blame you," she added, irritably, avoiding the fact that Alec had came up with a better plan than she had. She marched on down the street, fully assuming her role as the leader.  
  
"Like I didn't know you wouldn't anyway, Your Highness," he mumbled causing Jondy who was walking beside him to giggle.  
  
"Why did you put up with that?" she asked curious to know why Alec hadn't questioned her being mad at him when it was so blatantly obvious that she knew it was the right thing to do.  
  
"It's just typical Max. When she's wrong she doesn't admit it and blames it on someone else, usually me. But I've got to admire that about her, and also I have the self satisfaction of knowing I got one over on her," he said grinning.  
  
"Even still, it's a little much don't ya think?" asked Jondy, genuinely concerned.  
  
"Nah," said Alec. "Just wait 'til you see her whip these X's in to shape you'll see it's just that wonderfully aggressive part of her personality," he said wanting to get away from where the conversation had been headed, it was making him feel a little unnerved.  
  
___________________***************____________________  
  
Flashing their barcodes was all that was required to get them into the transgenic facility, which was guarded by X-6's. once they were admitted they went straight to headquarters with no intention of signing in, as they had been told to do, but under the general assumption that this is were the leaders of the group would probably be residing.  
  
"Well we probably all shouldn't go in," said Jace, as they all stood outside.  
  
"You're probably right, it might look like we are ganging up on them and I'm guessing they wouldn't respond to that to well," said Max. "Krit, Syl, you're with me. The rest of you just hang about and try not to make too much trouble," she said staring at Alec.  
  
"Maxie, Maxie, would I ever?" he asked innocently.  
  
"Just . . .be good," she said walking off.  
  
They had been sitting about for a while when Alec heard a familiar voice behind him. "Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in." Grinning, Alec was immediately on his feet hugging the man who had said it.  
  
"How's it going?" he asked pulling back.  
  
"Not to bad, so are you going to introduce me to your merry men or what?" the man asked, with a twinkle in his eyes.  
  
"Hey, everybody this is 536 now known as . . ."  
  
"Matt," the X-5 filled in for his old friend. "And what do you call yourself these days?"  
  
"Alec."  
  
"Isn't that the name the rogue gave you?"  
  
"Yeah well it suited me."  
  
"Oh my god, Max named you?" asked Jace half-laughing.  
  
"Ask Jondy," said Alec rolling his eyes thinking that Jace must have been the only not to have been told the story that had caused everyone else to roll about in laughter.  
  
"Strange company you're keeping these days Alec, the 09 escapees?"  
  
Alec nodded. "I'm taking it that you still know Max then?" said Matt.  
  
"He got to know her a little too well actually," joked Kat, tucking her red hair behind her ears. "Allowing Manticore to get their way I might add. You know thinking about it, it just shows your dedication to Manticore, finishing the job you never started and all that," she teased.  
  
"Dude you knocked up 452? . . . I mean Max," he added when he noticed everyone glaring at him. "Geez, tough crowd," he said feeling rather uncomfortable after having pissed of several X-5's.  
  
"So where is she now? I mean the rest of the Brady Bunch are here," he said.  
  
"Wow, first merry men, now the Brady Bunch, what a wonderful sense of humour you got there," said Zane sarcastically.  
  
"Yeah," commented Alec. "I personally like to think of them as the Von Trapps. I mean, just look at Kat, doesn't she just look like she's ready to burst into a verse of 'My Favourite Things?'" said Alec, who earned himself a slap around the back of the head from Jondy who was the closest.  
  
"Hey!" protested Alec, rubbing the back of his head. "What is with you people hitting me all the time? I am going to have to have a serious word with Max for starting such a painful trend."  
  
"Good to know that I am not the only one that offends them, so where is . . . Max?" asked Matt.  
  
"Her, Krit and Syl are in trying to reason with your leaders," filled in Jondy, as Alec was still attending to his 'wound.'  
  
"Holy shit, I mean I always thought you 09ers were a little 'off' for the lack of a better word, but now I know you're friggen crazy!" said Matt, who was suddenly the subject of many warning glares.  
  
"I mean you sent three people that we were trained to see as traitors in to try and negotiate something, God only knows what, with three true blue Manticore loyalists?" said Matt hurriedly, trying to say something that could possibly remove the foot that seemed to have permanently wedged itself into his mouth.  
  
Without giving the others a chance to react, Alec was running in the direction of HQ annoyed that he hadn't foreseen this complication.  
  
__________________*************_____________________  
  
Frustrated, Max hit the desk in front of her. When they had first entered they had been asked to state the designations and out of sheer courtesy they had, but as soon as Krit had got out his last digit, they were asked to leave, before Max had even got a chance to start the rant she had planned about the importance of names. Things had gone considerably downhill from there.  
  
After the first fifteen minutes or so of shouting matches, the leaders of the X-Series community, two X-5's and an X-6, had just sat down and ignored them, continuing flicking through an assortment of papers that were on their desk.  
  
No matter what Max, Krit or Syl said to them they would just sit calmly at their desks and Max was about breaking point.  
  
"Look you are going to listen to me and pay attention or else I am going to shove my foot up your . . ."  
  
"Now, now Maxie no need to get violent," interrupted a familiar voice coming from the door. Max spun around to see Alec walking into the room with his usual lopsided grin firmly in place.  
  
The chorus of "sirs" that came from the previously silent transgenics startled her. When she turned around, she saw that they were all standing and saluting Alec and beginning to state their designations.  
  
"X-5 296, Sir!"  
  
"X-5 679, Sir!"  
  
"X-6 472, Sir!"  
  
Sending a questioning look at Alec who simply shrugged it off, she stepped back wondering to see what would happen next.  
  
"At ease soldiers."  
  
Amazingly, they complied and Max watched in awe as Alec took them to pieces. "Could one of yous please inform me why you were not paying attention to this young lady and her friends?" he asked calmly.  
  
The 'young lady' comment made Krit snort and earned himself a nudge from Syl and a glare from Max.  
  
"Sorry sir," said the elder of the X-5's, X-5 296, "We were not aware that she was worth listening to, Sir. As you know we were trained to see her as a traitor and it could have been an attempt to . . ."  
  
"Well remind me where you are 296, are you in Manticore?"  
  
"No, Sir!"  
  
"Then why would you assume the rules for the real world are the same as those for a government facility that planned on keeping us locked up for the rest of our lives, until this young woman in front of you and me, let us all free, giving us all our own lives, and a mind of our own. I would not advise taking what Manticore trained you to do as the gospel, because from where I am standing it would appear that she is worthy of out respect or at the very least listening to."  
  
"Yes sir,"  
  
"Yes, Alec," he corrected. "Once again, we are not, I repeat not in Manticore. You should address me as Alec. That is my name and you should have. . . oh dear lord I have spent too much time with Max," he finished with a panicked look on his face.  
  
"Hey, don't say it like it is a bad thing," said Max.  
  
"Look just do me favour 269, call a meeting for five minutes, okay?" he asked, trying to be as casual as he could in an attempt to feel like Alec again.  
  
"Well, you know they say everyone turns into their other half eventually," said Krit. Alec frowned at him, "Not funny," he said and headed toward the door. "I think you can take it from here Max," he said quickly leaving the room allowing them to laugh.  
  
________________________ ************_________________________  
  
Ten minutes later just about every X-Series Manticore had ever created was outside headquarters ready to hear what was to be said. Alec got up first to 'warm up the crowd,' as he had put it, for Max as he wanted to make sure they didn't have a repeat performance of HQ.  
  
A lot of the transgenics saluted but Alec soon told them off about that.  
  
"Ugh, this is going to take a while. Look I have said it once, and I will say it again, this is not Manticore, you don't need to salute, or take orders anymore. You have been out in the world for well over a year now, and what have yous done with yourselves? You have just created another Manticore, only without all the testing and fun we got to have in phys-ops. I know it's difficult to adjust, but you do have to, Manticore shouldn't be able to rule your lives now unless you want it to and you shouldn't because getting out of Manticore gave you a life.  
  
I know most of you are probably looking at me now thinking, 'Wow he has really gone of the deep end, he is even crazier than Manticore let on.' But that was just something Manticore told you and like a lot of other things Manticore drilled in to you, it is not true.  
  
For instance, you were led to believe that this group of people, the '09 escapees are traitors but they are not, they are just a unit that saw what Manticore was doing to them and decided that they would not stand for it and they went and lived the way people are supposed to. And we are people, not just soldiers.  
  
I know many of you are bitter because we paid for their escape, we were treated far worse than before and trust me I know, as one of their twins, I spent six months in phys-ops for it, but we need to put that bitterness behind us. They do care or else they wouldn't be here now trying to help you and you need to let them.  
  
Also from an encounter with a group of X-6's I know that many of you believe that Manticore was attacked, when in actual fact Manticore locked the doors and set fire to the building in an attempt to cauterise the site, just because their location had been broadcasted. The only reason you are all here is because of Max, X5 452, yes that's right, an 09er saved you lives," he added after hearing many murmurs from the crowd.  
  
"Then a cult called the familiars set up a signal calling you to a location where they planned to finish the job. Many soldiers lost their lives before 452 changed the signal telling you to go to ground, once again saving you lives. It is this cult, the familiars that have brought us here today. I should probably go on but Max, 452, is going to take over and you should listen to her and respect her just as you did to me."  
  
He stepped back allowing Max to obtain the attention of the transgenics. He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, and se smiled gratefully at him. She didn't want to have to deal with a whole load of aggressive transgenics.  
  
"As Alec said the familiars are the reason I am here today. I will go into details later but basically they are this cult with one purpose in life, to rid the earth of transgenics. The main bulk of this movement is led by a man called Ames White with whom I am sure many of you have had a few run ins with.  
  
There have been many situations that have been too close for comfort and they are always one step ahead of us, each time striking in a different way. And I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty sick of it, I did not go to all this bother to finally be free from Manticore hunting me down, only to have to start running all over again from a bunch of loonies.  
  
Therefore, I think it's is time we took action and took a stand attacking them before they attack us. I know it's considerably risky, but if we can do this, if we can pull this off then we will and that will be the end of it. If we can't it will be the same process, they will still kill us off, we would only be prolonging the inevitable.  
  
But just think, if we do win, we will finally b free. Free from Manticore, free from the familiars, free to live our own lives, the way we were meant to. If you are with me, you are with me and if not I would advise that you think about your priorities.  
  
All of us talked it over and we think we should join with the nomilies and all live in terminal city, strength in numbers and all that. There we can work out a proper plan to kick White's ass. I mean the finer details still have to be worked out but we can't do that for all of you, I mean who are we to order you about, you all have more military experience than us, all we are saying, wait no, asking, is that you think about it."  
  
She left them a few minutes to think about what she said as she saw that she had really struck a chord with them and could tell that they were all considering it.  
  
"Wow Maxie, never knew you had it in you," said Zane who was quite impressed.  
  
"That makes two of us," she said.  
  
"I think you should talk to them again, they look about ready," said Syl.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Max went back to address them again. "I take it you have all made your decision so I think we should vote, majority rules. All those in favour of raise your hand."  
  
Max smiled as every hand she could see went up, she looked round at Alec, who was grinning at her. "And all those opposed?" she asked confidently. When no one raised their hands, Max's smile got even bigger. "In that case it is settled, we will fight the familiars for our lives and our future. If anyone has any personal belonging they want to bring I advise they gather them. We'll come back tomorrow, but first I have to go fight with a talking lizard."  
  
Max stepped back allowing Alec to run over to her and lift her up in a giant bear hug. "You did it," he said putting her down and kissing her. Max looked down meekly at her feet, "Look I'm sorry about earlier I was just been stubborn and I didn't occur to me that you had thought about it so yeah, I'm sorry and I couldn't have done this without you. I seriously doubt that they would have paid any attention to me if it wasn't for you."  
  
"Excuse me while I faint, did big bad Max just admit she was wrong, that I was right, and then apologise to me?"  
  
Max punched him on the arm. "Don't get used to it," she said grinning. "But I do mean it, I couldn't have done it without you barging into HQ and making asses out of those X's."  
  
"Yeah well, thank Matt; he was the one that pointed out to me that they weren't going to accept any authority from a 'rogue'."  
  
"You know, I think I will," she said going up on her tippy toes and giving him a quick peck on the lips before rushing of to talk to everyone who were standing talking to who Max assumed was Matt.  
  
Jondy who had been watching this little make up session walked over to Alec smiling. "So I see Max has apologised, well that is always a good sign," she said.  
  
"Yeah, I just wish she would learn to trust me and have no reason for to apologise."  
  
__________________********************____________________  
  
After this Max and Alec went back over to Terminal City leaving everyone else to make sure everything went accordingly. It was a cool night and Max and Alec walked slowly holding hands, enjoying one of those rare moments when it was just the two of them.  
  
Once again, they were confronted by the lizard man, "What do you want now? I thought I told you . . ." He dragged of as Alec held up a packet of cigars. "Yeah, yeah to talk to our 'own kind' we've been there done that. They are in, what about yous?" asked Max.  
  
The lizard just stood looking at them, with an expression, that could only be guessed was surprise. "How about you let us in, and we talk some things out over a couple of cigars, eh buddy?" said Alec. The gates opened and the lizard man introduced himself as Mole and began to show them around.  
  
Terminal City was cold and if possible drearier than the rest of Seattle. There were many large big rooms/buildings but most of them looked run down and falling apart. It was very messy with large pieces of junk and debris lying around but it was much bigger than were all the X- Series had been so it would do fine.  
  
They had been talking things over with Mole, he had been telling them about how they ran things in Terminal City, and Max and Alec had been filling him in on White and their general plan.  
  
"Well, do you think we can work together?" asked Alec.  
  
"You know," said Mole, putting his feet up on a near-by desk and puffing away on his cigar, "I think we can."  
  
"So, can everyone move into here? It's bigger than over on Oak Street, and is much more suitable for what we plan on using it for," Max said, asking Mole after double-checking with Alec.  
  
Mole paused for a moment in thought, blowing another puff of smoke at them. "And we will be treated as equals with the X-s?"  
  
"Yep, I can guarantee it," confirmed Max.  
  
"I will have to talk it over with everyone else but I'd say the chances are good. We were beginning to get a little bored around here."  
  
___________________*****************_________________ 


	9. Fighting to Settle In

Chapter 9: Fighting to settling in.  
  
Summary: Everyone moves into Terminal City and plans and preparations begin.  
  
A/N: I messed around with the Dark Angel timeline as I figured that Max and Alec left early season two but she had not seen Joshua out of Manticore yet. Go with it. It does not mess about too much, I hope.  
  
A couple of days later, everything was on schedule, the X's were moving into Terminal City so that they could start planning about how to manage a city of this sort. When Max and Alec arrived in TC that morning, the main area was filled with bags filled with items the transgenics had managed to accumulate over the past year or so of freedom.  
  
Everyone then began to find habitable rooms in the decrepit buildings, Max and Alec getting the seemingly best ones. While unpacking some things Max asked Alec how she had managed to become the leader of all of this.  
  
"You were the one that recognised what was happening and got off your ass to try and do something about it which in a way was stupid because it showed off you leadership abilities and your talent for organising."  
  
"But I wouldn't know the first thing about running a city, which lets face it this is turning out to be."  
  
Alec grinned and walked over to her, and put his arms round her comfortingly. "Look you know I'm here to help and you know you can count on all your siblings as well and I have a feeling that everyone else will respect you as long as you don't give them a reason to do otherwise."  
  
Seeing that Max still looked dubious, he decided to give her a little push start. "Look once were are finished here get the leaders of the X's that were over on Oak Street and Mole and all the leaders of this place to come to headquarters to discuss various things like supplies and to prioritise certain things. Get Jondy and all to come as well. It will help to show that you meant what you said and that we will work together, as well as getting some much needed work done. Trust me, we will be fine," he ended reassuringly.  
  
Max smiled feeling instantly better having somewhere to start from. "Thanks," she said, giving him a little kiss before going back to unpacking and putting some more clothing in a drawer. "Since when have you been good at organisation and stuff? Most of the time you are messier than me and that is saying something," she asked curiously.  
  
"Well to be honest being tidy and organised is a bit of a drag when it is being forced upon you so when I got out I was just blowing off twenty odd years or so of cleanliness but now I suppose I'm back."  
  
"Oh joy, but there is just one thing that has been puzzling me."  
  
"What?" asked Alec, with an amused look on his face.  
  
"Why did those X-5s salute you? They are of same rank as you and there is only need to salute an officer of superior rank than that of your own. Where you their CO?"  
  
Alec sighed knowing that this question would come up eventually. "Long story."  
  
"Do I look like I am going anywhere?" asked Max gesturing to her surroundings.  
  
"Well a while after you left, Manticore decided that some people would not just want ordinary run of the mill super soldiers so Manticore put together a special unit. They continually tested and ranked everyone before coming up with the twelve highest ranked X-5s in Manticore and well I was the CO of that unit and since the X-5's were considered to be the most successful of all the fine Manticore made products . . ."  
  
"You were the highest ranked of all," concluded Max as a few things that had been bugging her slipped into place.  
  
"Exactly, well until I went all loopy on the Berrisford mission and even after that I still got enough respect to continue as CO." There was an awkward silence until Alec's thoughtful face broke into a grin. "You know, now that I think of it, it wasn't really a long story."  
  
"That makes me feel better," said Max.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Cause I've kicked your ass countless times!" she exclaimed smugly.  
  
Alec rolled his eyes and continued unpacking.  
  
That afternoon while the rest of TC's newest residents were finding themselves rooms to live in, Max did as Alec suggested and called a meeting in HQ- a large building with many rooms, soon to be offices, and a large assembly area where a long table and several chairs had been placed.Mole and five other nomilies who introduced themselves as Dix, Hutch, Zip, Fudge and Tina. Also present were, Alec, Jondy, Krit, Syl, Kat, Jace, Zane and the three leaders of the X-Series nation who had now been named John, Dat and Tim.  
  
They were all situated around the large table looking eagerly at Max waiting to see what she had to say. "I called you all here today to enable me to make a list of issues that need to be addressed. First of all I want to thank you for coming as you are all needed.  
  
I'm just going to go through what I think needs to be dealt with then we will go onto your issues. Mole I need you to do a complete inventory check. We need to know what we have and what we don't. We are not barricaded in . . . yet but if any word that all the transgenics have settled in one place we will need to be able to depend on our resources. Now is the time to get them.  
  
Then I need someone to get a list of everyone in TC. We need a population count. We need names, designations and what sort of work they specialised in at Manticore." Hutch raised his hand. "Thank you; gather up a team to help you. Once we have done it, newcomers can sign in themselves.  
  
Also we need a way of letting all the other transgenics know to make their way here with out any ordinaries or familiars finding out."  
  
Dix raised his hand. "I can work on that, I could work some sort of code that only transgenics could understand into some kind of TV broadcast."  
  
"Excellent, get to work on that as soon as you can. Now that all of that is out of the way talk to me people."  
  
Max sat back and let anyone else who wanted to take the floor. She was approached with various topics and problems but managed to deal with them considerably well and without getting on anyone's bad side.  
  
"Okay well from now on all of you and anyone else that gets appointed to a main leadership role will have to attend the daily meeting here at nine sharp. It will be a time to bring any new issues to light and for progress reports and new plans and ideas. We will use this week to get ourselves sorted out and to get into a routine and from then on we will be planning. Any questions?"  
  
Alec raised his hand, "Nine? Unless we are talking pm here, I have a serious problem with that time."  
  
"What problem would that be?"  
  
"That I like my sleep," whined Alec.  
  
"Don't worry, I'm sure Max'll get you up, that is if she lets you get to sleep at all," said Kat with a wink. Max blushed, "I'll see everyone here tomorrow morning at nine," she said bashfully, collapsing in her chair once they had all left. Alec walked over and tried to work some of the tension out of her shoulders by giving her a massage. "You did great," he commented. "Thanks couldn't have done it without you," she said looking up gratefully.  
  
"I know," said Alec with mock arrogance causing Max to grin.  
  
This sweet moment was short lived as at that second, an out of breath dog faced man with scrappy clothes and long tatted hair came barging through the door.  
  
"Joshua?"  
  
"Max, alive! Little fella safe and at TC. Joshua wasn't sure that you had made it out all right."  
  
Max got up to hug the lovable dog man, genuinely pleased to see him again.  
  
"Joshua ran all the way here when Zip told him that an X-5 called Max was helping them."  
  
Max sat for a long time talking to Joshua but Alec got up and left after five minutes worth of catching up without either of them noticing.  
  
He went round to the nursery to see Jen. Because of the breeding program at Manticore, the nursery had to be one of the first things to be set up and all though this meant he would not see as much of Jen, he wouldn't have to worry about her.  
  
He walked into what must have been the cleanest building in TC. There were several fairly new cots that the parents must have brought with them like Max and Alec had done.  
  
Alec went and lifted Jen up, her little legs wiggling with excitement as he did. "There you are, let me see you smile, where's your beautiful smile?" he asked in a musical tone, running a light finer up and down her left cheek.  
  
Alec grinned when she did so on cue. "Either you are a very happy baby or you have spent too much time in this environment already. Well at least we won't have to send you to military school if your behaviour gets out of hand in your teenage years," he joked.  
  
"Alec you do know that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness right?"  
  
Turning round to face Matt, Alec grinned while rolling his eyes, "Well you would know, was that the first clue that you had when you found out you were mad?"  
  
"Very funny."  
  
"I thought so."  
  
"So this is Jen, well I may not be a baby person but she is a particularly cute baby."  
  
"Yeah, good genes I suppose. So Matt, if you are not a baby person what are you doing here?"  
  
"Oh no, no, no, don't be getting the wrong idea, none of these are mine I just had to ask Finch if she needed anymore supplies for the nursery, Mole's orders."  
  
"Well she's over there going through the supplies now."  
  
"Thanks man," he said going in the direction Alec had indicated.  
  
Alec spent more time just playing with Jen before she fell asleep in his arms. He gently out her back down in the cot, placing a feather light kiss on her forehead before watching her sleep for a few minutes. Then he had to go and see how everyone was getting on with their jobs.  
  
It was quite hectic everyone was trying to do something to help and things were beginning to get muddled up already not to mention that Max was still no where to be seen.  
  
"Well I guess it is up to me then."  
  
Later that evening Jondy was looking for Alec. Earlier she had seen him trying to sort things out and he had looked pretty exhausted even for an X- 5 and she was worried about him.  
  
Eventually he found him sitting on top of one of the highest buildings in TC.  
  
"What is it about us and high places?" She asked walking up to sit beside him.  
  
"Max kinda started me on it, but I think it is the idea of looking, watching everyone else, it's peaceful. Reassuring and a place to clear your head and think, a place you can go for a bit of alone time."  
  
"Oh I'm sorry," said Jondy who had gotten the wrong idea and was getting up, "I didn't mean to intrude."  
  
"No don't go I was just saying, I would enjoy some company actually," he explained glad to see her sitting down again.  
  
"Good because so would I. So, you looked pretty rushed off your feet earlier. You looked like you were trying to do everything at once."  
  
"I think I was actually," he said causing them both to laugh.  
  
They spent a long time up there just sitting, talking and enjoying each other's company.  
  
After a long chat with Joshua, Max went looking in search of Alec. It was quite late and the streets of TC were empty though a lot of noise was coming form the buildings especially the bar.  
  
She went and checked the nursery first, where Jen was still asleep, Finch said that Alec had been their earlier.  
  
"Thanks," said Max, "I'll pick Jen up as soon as I find Alec."  
  
With that, she wondered around TC looking for him. She couldn't find him in any of the places she though he would be and Zane hadn't seen him for a few hours. 'Where would he have went without telling me?' she wondered.  
  
When she started to walk around the quieter buildings, the ones where there were only apartments, she heard someone laughing. She looked up and saw it was Jondy, sitting with Alec up on the roof with their legs dangling of the edge. She smiled at seeing him and her getting on so well and began to walk towards the fire escape that would bring her up onto the roof to join them.  
  
The nearer she got the more laughing she heard, however this time it was Alec's laughter that could be heard. Ignoring the pang of jealousy she felt, Max kept climbing. It was only on a very rare occasion she ever made Alec laugh but she had never realised that before. Ignoring the strange feeling that was coming over her, she took the final step onto the roof.  
  
"Hey guys," she said.  
  
They both turned round smiling, "Hey Max," they chorused. Alec got up to greet her as she was walking towards them.  
  
He kissed her on the lips quickly, "And where have you been missy? I feel as though I haven't talked to you all day. Did you and Josh have a good time reacquainted?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.  
  
"Yes actually we did. It seems as though he has been here for a while."  
  
"Well I'm going to leave you guys alone. You know, go find someone to talk to where there is no danger of me becoming uncomfortable before they start making out," said Jondy standing up and dusting of her hands on her jeans.  
  
"In that case I wouldn't look for Krit and Syl, I saw them earlier in the corner of the bar. Zane was down there though, him and Matt where trying to organise a game of strip poker," said Max  
  
"All right!" said Jondy nodding in approval. "I guess there is no point in even asking if you will be there, you two off to do baby stuff?"  
  
"Pretty much, I haven't seen Jen all day," said Max. "I really have missed her. I don't know what I'm going to do when things get hectic around here!  
  
"Kay then bye!" she said looking strangely at Max for her last comment and hitting Alec playfully on the shoulder as she passed.  
  
"Later," he said.  
  
When Jondy disappeared down the fire escape Max sighed and snuggled in closer to Alec. "I'm exhausted, what am I going to do when it actually gets busy?"  
  
"It was busy today Max. Why do you think I was up here I needed a break," said Alec, wearing the same look Jondy just had. "Just because you sat around all day after one meeting doesn't mean everybody else did. If you quite remember you set people tasks today them didn't even go around and check for progress reports."  
  
Max pulled back not liking the way he was talking to her.  
  
"Well excuse me if I wanted to catch up with an old friend. Are you trying to say that I'm not pulling my weight, all because I didn't do the same thing as you today?"  
  
"No but what I am saying is that today was busy but it is going to get a lot worse and if you don't get used to this now what the hell are you going to think when we start planning a war. Look I know you are having a hard time trying to set up a transgenic community and that you are not used to an environment like this but Max you cant expect to get things done if you just tell others what to do then don't do anything yourself. I'm not picking on you or saying anything like that but one meeting, no matter how stressful you found it is not a day's work!"  
  
"Look who's talking. You may have started to do things recently but before that you were the one always trying to get away with doing no work!"  
  
"Like you can even say anything about that, work at Jam Pony starts at half nine Max, not half twelve."  
  
"This is a completely different situation!"  
  
"You are right Max, it is. This is much more serious! You seem to be the leader here, you are supposed to set an example. And I'm sorry if I haven't been working my ass of for the year or so you've know me but I only just got out of Manticore unlike you and you little brothers or sisters who have had over a decade to mess around, sorry if I wanted a break Max!"  
  
Max stared at him in silence for a while, allowing both of them to cool off.  
  
"I'm going to get Jen then head back to the apartment, I'll see you whenever," she mumbled.  
  
She left silently and Alec ran his fingers through his hair. After a few minutes of running over the argument in his head, he walked over to the stairs and hit them in frustration. The clattering of them caused Zane, Jondy, Jace, Kat and Matt who were on their way to Zane's room to look up.  
  
"You guys head on I'll be round in a minute. I'm just going to see what's up," said Jondy, leaving the group and walking over to Alec who was now at the bottom of the fire escape.  
  
"What's the matter? Where is Max?" she asked, wondering what could have possibly gone on in the ten minutes she had been gone.  
  
"We had a fight, and it was over nothing. Ugh will I ever learn?"  
  
Seeing that he was clearly upset she sat on the ground with her back resting on the wall and motioned for him to do so as well.  
  
"Ok so talk me through what happened."  
  
A few hours later, Alec entered the apartment as quietly as he could, not wanting to disturb Max or Jen so he even used his stealth ability. It was no good however as it would appear that Max had not went to bed and was still wide-awake.  
  
'Damn shark DNA,' he though as he prepared himself for Max vs. Alec, round . . . he had lost count.  
  
"Where were you?" she asked in a demanding whisper. "I know I said 'I'll see you whenever' but I thought you'd be back by half an hour at least!"  
  
"I was talking to Jondy, she was passing by when I was on my way home and saw I was upset. She made me sit down and talk it through. I felt better when I did, well until now when I come back just in time for another fight."  
  
Max felt the anger raging in side of her. He was the one who had started that fight in the first place now it would appear that he was angry with her. How dare he!"  
  
"Look, it is not my fault we are having this fight," she said, having decided to voice her opinions and dragging him outside so they wouldn't wake Jen.  
  
"Oh so what it is mine?"  
  
"Yes as a matter of fact if you had just come home and . . . "  
  
"And if you hadn't been presumptuous enough to think that . . ."  
  
They continued like this until they both had released all their anger and had said everything they wanted. By the end they were both out of breath and red in the face.  
  
"I don't like it when we fight especially petty, bitter fights over nothing. I was just tired earlier and was agitated easily. I'm sorry," said Alec running his hand through his hair, realising that he would have to be the first to apologise thanks to Max's stubbornness.  
  
"Yeah me too, I just felt that you were picking on me."  
  
Alec wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a quick kiss on the lips making Max smile instantly.  
  
"I love it when you do that," she said, the fight now forgotten.  
  
"I know, why do you think I do it so often?"  
  
"Because you just can't stand to keep your hands of me?"  
  
"That's only a minor factor."  
  
"Come on, let's go to bed," she said walking back into their make shift apartment.  
  
After getting changed they climbed into bed their arms wrapped around each other and Alec just lay watching her sleep for a while remembering something Jondy had said to him when they were talking earlier, trying to console him.  
  
#####  
  
"Max is Max, she stubborn, it is a quality that we all tried to stamp out of her as a kid, it can get pretty annoying at times. We failed, but Alec if you love her you love all of her. If you do not want to fight with her, let her have her own way. I personally never did which is why I know how stubborn she is but hey, it's up to you."  
  
###############  
  
He sighed knowing that it was exactly what he had done, let her have it the way she wanted but it wouldn't happen again, he just didn't have being a doormat in him and he had a feeling that it was going to cause some serious problems. 


	10. Paranoia, never a good thing

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 10: Paranoia; bound to cause problems.  
  
A/N: Thanks to Laker Girl, Little Kat, Mel, Jumoke and Down-Ass-Bitch for replying to my pleas and reviewing! (Sorry if I have left anyone out.)  
  
Also I meant to have this up on Friday but my cousin decided that I should help her move house which pretty much took up my weekend. Blame her!  
  
The next morning at the meeting everything appeared to have settled down. Max and Alec were always smiling at each other and giving each other these little looks.  
  
When everyone started to come in they were just sitting talking at the table. Jondy and Zane were the first to get there. "Hey guys," they said as they took their places at the table. Jondy grinned at Alec giving him a knowing look and Max kept a note of it. She didn't know why but ever since last night she had felt uneasy about the amount of time they were spending together.  
  
A frown appeared on Max's face when Alec started talking to Jondy. 'Get a grip Max! Anyone would think you didn't want Alec to be friends with your sister!' Listening to the voices in her head she smiled and began going through things that needed to be addressed today.  
  
During the meeting she found out that everyone had gotten everything done and were actually ahead of schedule which made her feel slightly guilty about snapping at Alec as she realised that she shouldn't have sat about then assumed that no-one else had done anything.  
  
"So Dix, any developments on how to tell the transgenics to come on Terminal city?"  
  
"Yes actually, you know the signals Manticore taught us to look for and use if we found our selves out of the base?" He continued not waiting an answer knowing that they all had. "Well I have found a way of putting a similar code into a TV programme using a system of flashing lights that to the ordinaries will just look like a minor glitch in the reception. The code basically gives them directions to Terminal City saying that it is urgent."  
  
From looks, similar to her own Max knew that everyone else was just as impressed as she was.  
  
"Great job Dix. Any downsides?"  
  
"Well, it will be hard finding a show that we can put it into. We need something that will not show up on the government broadcasting facility, you know how monitored these things are these days, and something people will watch. Either that or we will have to create a cable hack but it would probably be too obvious."  
  
"Is there anything we could put it into that might work?" asked Zane.  
  
"The only thing that would have a chance of working would be if we could put it into an Eyes Only broadcast. Everyone listens to that guy and it can't be traced anyway. Only problem is that it will probably be very hard to hack into the broadcast and put it in. "  
  
Everyone one turned round to Max to see what she thought only to see that she looked like she was having a fight with herself.  
  
"Max. . . . " said Alec. "You know we should. It's the only option," he said.  
  
"No, I finally got him out of my life and I have had enough problems doing that."  
  
Seeing that everyone with the exception of Krit and Syl were confused Alec decided to explain. "We know Eyes Only."  
  
"That's brilliant!" said Jace, "Now we can use his equipment and put the code into his broadcast, hassle free."  
  
"Not quite," said Alec. "Logan Cale, the 'Great and Powerful Eyes' is Maxie's ex. There was a particular nasty break-up that involved door slamming, name-calling and crying with the crying coming from him."  
  
The shocked silence was broken by Jondy excitedly saying, "Is that the one who had a genetically engineered retro virus so that it you touched him he would fall dead?"  
  
"Pretty much," said Max coming out of her daze.  
  
"Talk about issues," muttered Jace.  
  
"Talk bout not being able to take a hint," replied Zane.  
  
"But I went through hell and besides, he is really creepy now. After the break up he spent the next few eyes only broadcasts talking about how love is eternal and that commitment is the way forward."  
  
"But Max we have to go, it is a secure option that eliminates the risk of the familiars catching on to what we are doing. They have been monitoring all other shows making sure nothing gets through," said Alec. "Max you know you have do as I seriously doubt that he will do it for anyone apart from you."  
  
"Max," he said pausing for effect. "You know you have to."  
  
"I know, I know but it doesn't mean I have to be happy about it," she said giving in.  
  
Everyone smiled gratefully at her. "I'll go later on, now back to business."  
  
The meeting went quite successfully. There were not too many supplies needed and TC had a current population count of 576 transgenics with a wide range of skills. Knowing that that was still not enough for an army Max decided she should try to get her little challenge for the day over and done with.  
  
So later that evening, Max didn't have anything that urgently needed to be done so headed for Logan's. Alec had offered to go with her but she had refused saying that it was something that she would rather do on her own so him, Jondy and Zane had all went to help get dinner sorted in the cantine.  
  
The route to Logan's house still seemed familiar to her though now she did not feel quite as comforting to her.  
  
When she got to the fancy building and arrived at Logan's apartment, she did something she had never done before. She knocked and waited on him to answer.  
  
She was greeted with a look of complete surprise that was then attempted to be covered up with a smarmy smile that made Max feel sick to her stomach.  
  
"Can I come in?" she said.  
  
"Why of course," he sad opening the door further and allowing her to step inside. Not wanting him to get the wrong idea Max didn't walk too far in and stopped walking in the hallway.  
  
"I must admit that I am quite surprised to see you here Max though I'm glad you did, there is something I have wanted to show you."  
  
Logan walked over to his video cabinet and lifted a tape labelled "IMPORTANT." He put it into the video player casually sauntered over and sat on the sofa. "Won't you sit down?" he said gesturing to the space beside him.  
  
Getting annoyed Max said, "Look Logan, I'm not here to watch videos, this isn't a social call I need your help."  
  
Not knowing how exactly to respond to this Logan nodded showing that he wanted her to continue.  
  
She explained the current situation and the events of the past few days as quickly as she could so that she could get around to asking him the question.  
  
"So we were wondering if we could use one of your Eyes Only broadcasts to inform all the transgenics to head to TC. We wouldn't have asked but even as transgenics it would have taken us a few days to get a complete hack and access into your system, they are too short for us to get a complete trace of the signals you are using."  
  
Logan got up. "So do you see now why I wouldn't let you or Alec near my computer? Yous always complained about me taking so long but as soon as you try to do it without me you realise that you need me," he said smugly.  
  
"Screw you Logan I said it would take longer I never said we couldn't do it!" said Max turning around and heading for the door.  
  
"Max wait I'm sorry, of course I will do it just stay a while longer. You can tell me when and where and there is still something I need to show you."  
  
Max stopped. She was determined as ever to keep walking but a voice in her head that sounded surprisingly like Alec, told her that they needed this and that it would be silly just to put them behind just because Logan is a smug, superior asshole.  
  
Eventually she listened to the voice of reason and stayed. She sat down. "Well Dix, the transgenic who organised this will come here to alter your broadcast tomorrow evening so what ever you have planned make sure you already have it pre-recorded," she said wanting to get out of there as fast as possible.  
  
"So what was this thing you wanted to show me?"  
  
An eerie smile appeared on Logan's face. "So tell me Max, how have you and Alec been getting on recently?"  
  
"Fine thanks, not that it is any of your business."  
  
"Well because I have a feeling that after you watch this there might be trouble in paradise. This tape has lead me to believe that Alec is not as committed as you would like to believe."  
  
No matter what Max had though he was going to say it hadn't been that. She swallowed trying to hide how nervous she was and not giving Logan the pleasure of seeing just how unsure of Alec she currently was. Unsure of what she was about to see Max took a deep breath.  
  
Logan pressed play, she looked up, and what appeared to be Jam Pony. When she saw who just entered Jam Pony on the screen she walked in, relief washed over her.  
  
"Well?" asked Logan. "Anything to say in his defence? I doubt it; after all he just walked into Jam Pony with a beautiful brunette ad left again with you nowhere in sight. Or does Alec usually walk about with his arm around strange girls? I can also assure you that this was only taken from Jam Pony surveillance about a week ago."  
  
"That 'beautiful brunette' is my sister Jondy. They had went down to tell Normal that we wouldn't be in for a while. I wasn't there because I was at home packing and looking after Jen."  
  
After seeing the smile drop from Logan's face she continued. "Why Logan? Did you just not want to see me happy, could you just not stand to see me with someone else, out having a life? So what was your plan here? Did you think that I would see the errors of my ways and see Alec for 'what he really is' while you played the comforting shoulder to cry on Logan? Because if so you are even more of a dick than I thought."  
  
It was now clear to Logan just how mad Max was and that possibly his 'oh-so- brilliant idea' hadn't exactly gone to plan.  
  
"Well maybe I am a dick Max but I'll never be as bad as him. There may not have been anything on that tape to prove that he is going to break your heart but I'd bet everything I own that he will. People like Alec never change so when you finally do see Alec as I do you and your heart is I thousands of pieces, remember that I warned you."  
  
"You are just a petty, jealous little man and I hope you rot in hell," she retorted before storming out the door.  
  
Max waited until she was all the way downstairs and about to get on her bike before she allowed herself to cry. She wasn't quite sure why she was upset, she knew Alec would never do anything to hurt her but for some reason Logan's words had struck a chord with her.  
  
When Max returned to TC se went straight to headquarters to find Dix. She found him in an office near her own. "We are on for tomorrow, Foggle Towers, penthouse apartment. Take the fire escape and Syl to help you with your equipment. She knows Logan; don't spend anymore time with him than necessary.  
  
"Great Max thanks, you look upset are you okay?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah," she said. Although Dix was unconvinced he decided to let it go and continued on with his work on the computer.  
  
Max went outside to look for Alec, something she felt that she was doing a lot of recently. She found him in the bar with everyone. They were in the corner laughing and joking and Max couldn't help but notice that Alec and Jondy seemed awfully cosy and appeared to be having their own conversation, separate from the rest of the group.  
  
She heard Logan's words echoing in her head " . . .he'll break your heart . . . people like Alec never change . . "  
  
She turned round to leave but Alec had already spotted her and was on his way over. "How did it go?" asked after greeting her with a kiss.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it but we are sorted for tomorrow."  
  
"Brilliant, so are you going to come join us for few drinks? We got everything that we were supposed to do today done, along with everyone else so we are pretty much on schedule."  
  
"Good but I'm just going to go get Jen and head up to the apartment."  
  
"Yeah I was in seeing her earlier and she seems to have adjusted pretty well, I'll come with you." He called over to them telling them he was going and said his goodbyes before heading for the nursery with his arm around Max's shoulders. This did not help Max as he had done it in the same fashion that she had seen him do with Jondy on the Jam Pony surveillance feed.  
  
She unwillingly shuddered. "You ok?" Max nodded and tried to clear he head, determined not to let Logan get to her.  
  
There you go. I have the next one ready to go so if I get enough reviews I will post it. (Unless someone else decided to move house.) Thanks! Also I tried to be objective in this chapter and try not to do too much Logan bashing but I'm afraid my utter hatred for the man may have sneaked into it. What do you think? 


	11. The Insightful One

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 11: The Insightful One  
  
Thanks to Jumoke, Down-Ass-Bitch, Damien (whos name is pronounced Dah-mein, she's a girl,) wicked-sista and laker girl for revewing. A/N: This chapter is unbelievably short as the next one is very long and I didn't want to shorten it just to make this one longer because it would break the flow. Enjoy this one while it lasts though because the next one will probably be a while.  
  
Also there is far too much dialogue in this chapter so I apologise in advance.  
  
___________________*********************_________________________  
  
After the next mornings' meeting everyone with the exception of Dix and Syl who were setting up the equipment for their little trip to Logan's later that night had the rest of the day off. Those that did not need to attend the meeting were thoroughly enjoying their day off by having a good lie in.  
  
The reason for this unusual bit of luxury was as they were all ahead of schedule, they would stop the domestic planning and begin the plan for the attack against the familiars tomorrow and Max though they should break it up.  
  
When everyone who had no choice but to get up to go to the meeting had the rest of the day free they all hung around enjoying each other's company. As a special treat for Max, Alec had called Original Cindy and told her to come round for a few hours to see Max.  
  
Max had been ecstatic when she saw her best friend and had left Jen with Alec, Jondy, Krit, Jace, Kat and Zane while she walked around chatting with OC. Although she had only been living in Terminal City for five days she fels as though she hadn't spoke to OC in months.  
  
"So how is everyone?" she asked.  
  
"We are all good, missing you though. Normal is in a state of despair again."  
  
"I'm sure," said Max.  
  
"So how are you and your boy?"  
  
When all she got was a quiet "Ok" and not the 'brilliant' or 'couldn't be better' that she was expecting, OC inquired further.  
  
"Why is there trouble in paradise?" Max was all of a sudden uneasy because of OC's choice of words, it was a phrase Logan had used last night. In had unsettled her, as she wasn't sure that her and Alec's relationship could be called 'paradise.' There was just too much going on between them and their relationship had always been complicated.  
  
After a period of silence Max decided to confide in OC about her recent feelings and reactions to certain situations i.e. Alec and Jondy's friendship and what Logan had said the previous night.  
  
"Girl you are mad if you think that boy would do anything to hurt you," said OC after she had heard Max's worries and concerns. "Even if he would he is not that stupid, he knows how many people would kick his ass if he did."  
  
"You just aren't used to Alec spending a regular amount of time with someone that isn't me, you, Sketch or obviously Jen. It is just a bit weird for you at the moment Boo, but you will get used to it and realise how silly you were being."  
  
"Thanks OC," said Max with a smile, feeling instantly better because of her best friends little piece of wisdom which had really put things in perspective for her.  
  
"As for Logan I think you were spot on with the whole petty, bitter old man thing."  
  
Max hugged her best friend, "God I miss you, are you sure you couldn't build up immunity to the toxins?" she asked.  
  
"Pretty sure."  
  
"Shame."  
  
_______________*************************************_____________________  
  
Later that night Alec was heading back to the apartment with Jen in his arms when he ran into Max and OC who were heading for the bar. "You not coming for a few drinks? I haven't got to have a good talk with you yet," asked OC who wanted to poke and pry in his feeling just to confirm what she knew about him not wanting to hurt Max.  
  
"Nah, I really wish I could but I just came from the bar. Everyone else is there having a right laugh oh and Syl and Dix are back," he explained.  
  
"Oh how did it go?" asked Max curious to know if Logan had caused them any hassle.  
  
"Not too bad, Syl thinks he has really changed since she last saw him and Dix is worried for your mental health that you went out with him."  
  
OC and Max grinned, "So where are you off to now?" asked OC.  
  
"I'm getting this one to bed, she fell asleep in my arms again when I went to see her in the nursery and I couldn't bear to put her down again," he said sheepishly.  
  
"Well I'll come too," said Max.  
  
"Oh no, no you go down to the bar and have a good time with OC."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
"I insist, so I will see you later ok?" He kissed Max and she gave Jen a kiss on the forehead.  
  
He turned round to Original Cindy. "I'll speak to you some other time Cindy ok? It has been great seeing you no matter for how short a time."  
  
When he hugged Cindy, she whispered into his ear. "Just look after my girl, aiight?"  
  
"Sure thing Cindy, you didn't even have to ask."  
  
Max stamped her foot, annoyed that they were talking about her as if she wasn't even there. "Hello, transgenic hearing remember?"  
  
"Ok you two get going and OC just remember to say hi to Sketchy for me," he said walking away.  
  
"Don't worry I'll be sure to send Normal all your love as well," she shouted back.  
  
She turned round to an amused Max, "Now let's get down to the important stuff, where is this bar?"  
  
____________**********************************************_______________  
  
~~~~~~A reply to Jumoke's question of why I hate Logan so much~~~~~~  
  
Reasons why I hate Logan, where do I start? Well I just think he has this whole goody-goody thing going on which makes me sick to my stomach. He is obsessed with pasta and all miserable and he brought Max down with him! During the first few episodes of the first season she was fun and feisty and then during series two she was moping around and too miserable to see the fine piece of man in front of her that was Alec!!! Also Logan really hates Alec so me liking him is really not an option. He is also far to old for Max and Alec is way hotter, funnier ad just a better character in general. So while Logan processes some characteristics that others might interpret as sweet, clever and amusing I see it as highly irritating, smug and slimy. The dude just totally creeps me out!!! I'm glad to have converted you to 'the dark side' (Soz I'm a star wars freak as well!) and would really like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to write this and make this chapter seem ever so slightly longer, I'm so ashamed!!! Also if you liked Logan so much before why are you reading an M/A story or are you one of these 'I don't ship' DA fans? I'm not annoyed at you asking or anything ( I liked the opportunity to share my view on Logan) I'm just curious. (God did you see how long I just rambled on for? It is like ¾ of a page in word!) 


	12. The Day With Two Faces 1

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 12: The Day with Two Faces- Part One.  
  
Thanks to Down-Ass-Bitch, Sho, Kim, Jumoke and Panda007 who reviewed. Also big thanks to all those people who agreed with my rant and Down-Ass Bitch and Kim who supplied one of there one which I have added at the end of the story. So if anyone else wants to rant about Logan in a review feel free and I will post it as well!  
  
ATTENTION  
  
This chapter took so long because it has two parts and I didn't want to post the first part until I had all of it done (plus both of them are longer than most chapters I write even separately!) So if you give me 5 reviews I will post the second part straight away.  
  
If you are looking for a committed man, try a mental institute. . .  
  
THE DAY FROM MAX'S POINT OF VIEW  
  
When Max woke up the next morning she rolled over to snuggle into Alec only to find an empty space. She blinked her eyes open to find a fully dressed Alec pacing the bedroom, nursing Jen in the crook of his arm feeding her a bottle. Max smiled watching this sweet scene and noticing how the slithers of sunlight from the gap in where the curtains met danced on Alec's handsome face.  
  
"Good morning," she said. "What time is it? "She asked getting up and kissing him on the way to the bathroom.  
  
"Half eight, meeting is in half an hour you've got plenty of time. Though I do have something to do before the meeting so can you take Jen down to the nursery this morning?" he asked.  
  
"Sure just put her in the cot and go, I will be ready in five minutes and will bring her down then, ok?" she asked while brushing her teeth.  
  
"Thanks, bye sweetie, see you later."  
  
He gently placed Jen in the cot after winding her and kissed Max quickly on the cheek before rushing out the door  
  
Wondering what had caused him to need to get out so early; Max shrugged to herself and finished brushing her teeth before playing with Jen and getting dressed.  
  
She left Jen in the nursery and went to HQ where everyone was already seated with the exception of Alec and Jondy. Letting it go, knowing they would be there soon Max began without them.  
  
Fifteen minutes into the meeting, Jondy and Alec stumbled in looking rather dishevelled. Their clothes were crumpled, their hair was messy and they both looked exhausted but had a twinkle in their eyes.  
  
"Sorry Max," said Jondy as her and Alec slipped into their seats. "We uh . . . got caught up in something." For some reason unbeknown to the others, Alec found this funny and had to try to stifle a laugh causing a wide grin to appear on Jondy's face.  
  
"Ok," said Max unsurely, "Just make sure it doesn't happen again. We were talking about planning the attack. Dix's broadcast seems to have worked, already we have had three X-5's show up. Apparently the code will now show up in all of the eyes only broadcast from now on is that correct Dix?"  
  
He nodded, "Until we tell him otherwise anyway."  
  
"Great, now we need to get Intel on the familiars. Where their main base is any plans they have and any surprise they might be intending to send our way."  
  
Max preceded to tell them what she already knew about them and about the formation and styles of any attacks or ambushes she had found herself in thanks to White.  
  
Everyone listened intently apart from Alec, who she noticed looked as if his mind was on something else. He kept looking over at Jondy and smiling and she did the same to him. They seemed completely preoccupied, caught up in their own little world.  
  
After the meeting, Alec disappeared pretty quickly, Max's only consolation being that Jondy didn't. Max went after him to see where he went. She spotted him about to leave TC., she ran over to him and alerted his attention by putting her hand on his shoulder just before he left the gates.  
  
"Hey, where are you of to?" she asked.  
  
"I'm going to order supplies, remember?" he said.  
  
Max suddenly felt better, she had assigned him to do this and it was something that needed to be done urgently. "Well I'll go with you then, keep you company and all that," she suggested.  
  
"No," he said quickly, "You probably have better things to do and it really is a one man job.  
  
"Oh," said Max, clearly disappointed. "Well you better get going then. I will probably spent most of the day cleaning or sort out the medical supplies."  
  
"Ok, well I'll see you later." He gave her a quick kiss before hurrying off.  
  
When Max was turning the corner to head to the medical bay she saw him wait just outside the gate, he leaned against the wall as if he was waiting for something. 'Or someone,' thought Max as she saw him stand up straight and a huge grin appear on his face as he was joined by Jondy.  
  
Max felt as if her whole world was crashing down around her as she watched them leave together, it was as though all her suspicions were confirmed, needing more opinions before she confronted them about it she went of to find someone to talk to.  
  
A few hours later and neither of them were back yet and Max didn't feel any better. She was trying to fix up a large building to try to make it fit for human inhabitance with Syl, Kat and Zane when she finally worked up the nerve to confide in them.  
  
She moved closer to Syl to enable her to talk to her quietly. "Syl, can I ask you something?" she asked.  
  
"Sure, what's up?"  
  
"It's about Alec," she began. "I think he might be having an affair."  
  
"What?!" exclaimed Syl clearly shocked and alerting Kat and Zane's attention to them.  
  
"Max thinks that Alec is having an affair," she told them without them even asking.  
  
Kat and Zane's reactions were very different. While Zane's was quite similar to Syl's, shock and disbelief, Kat let out a giant snort before laughing.  
  
"I'm glad you find this so amusing," said Max wondering what on earth made this so funny.  
  
"It's just that . . . you would think that. . . . you had just met Alec . . . or something," she said between laughs. "I mean I know I haven't known the guy that long but please, you are blind if you can't see that he is head over heels completely and utterly waves crashing on the sand, birds singing in the trees in love with you!"  
  
Although this didn't appear to be helping Max it would seem that Zane and Syl agreed with her as they were both nodding their heads. "She's right Max, he is always showing it as well. He's always touching you or kissing you or staring at you with those big puppy dog eyes and finding some way to spend time with you," said Syl.  
  
"Plus the fact he just doesn't seem the type to cheat," said Zane. Seeing that Max had begun to open her mouth to argue he continued. "I know before you and him got together he drifted from girl to girl but he wasn't serious about them and he is about you. Besides we all went a little bit mad over the opposite sex when we got out."  
  
Max was getting frustrated, these were all very valid point but it didn't stop her from feeling insecure about it or all the little things that she had picked up on that had originally led her to this conclusion.  
  
"So if you think he is having an affair, any ideas who with?" asked Syl who had for the sakes of argument decided to humour her sister.  
  
"Jondy," she said quietly.  
  
This set Kat off again and this time even Syl and Zane were smiling.  
  
"Ok so maybe Alec isn't our specialist subject but Jondy is. We have known her for longer than you Max and trust me she really isn't that type. And if you even think that she would do something like that you obviously don't know what sort of person she is at all. I mean she can be a bit flirty at times but she knows when to stop and would never try anything with someone who was in a relationship," said Zane sticking up for Jondy.  
  
"Even if she would, you are he sister for god's sake and people just don't do that sorta thing to their sister," added Syl.  
  
Many other arguments came up against this theory but Max still wasn't sure, it was strange. She knew they where right and it would be completely out of either of their characters but something weird was definitely going on between them. OC had said that they were just friends 'but friends don't sneak out to go and . . . well be friends,' thought Max.  
  
"It is just that, they are always laughing and joking together and he always looks like he is enjoying himself with her more than he does with me. Plus they keep disappearing together and this morning they came in late all 'crumply' and I can assure Alec did not leave like that this morning. Then after I saw Alec leaving Terminal City to 'order supplies' and said he didn't need anyone to go with him then snuck out with Jondy!"  
  
This silenced Zane and Syl and even Kat sobered up to weigh this new information. Now that all of them thought about it, Alec and Jondy did seem to get on extremely well and those little suspicious looking moments like this morning did occur frequently. They seemed innocent enough to them but then again it had never crossed any of their minds for a second that what Max was suggesting was even a possibility.  
  
Despite al of this Kat, Zane and Syl refused to believe it. "Look Max, do you love Alec?" asked Syl.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then you will just have to trust him, and why are you so willing to believe that he is cheating on you anyway?"  
  
Max hadn't thought about that before. She always seemed to be trying to convince people that he was. Maybe it was just this whole 'Alec is a screw up' thing that she seemed to have permanently engraved in her brain rearing it's ugly head again? But surly that wouldn't be enough to make her feel this certain that him and Jondy were having an affair.  
  
She decided to try and work through this new thought by herself so she said good bye to Kat, Syl and Zane and began to walk through the streets of TC. After about half an hour Max finally managed to believe that it was all in her head, that she was still expecting Alec to mess up and that when he didn't her warped little mind decided to make her think that he had. Just as she had come to this realisation and smiled for the first time in days, she saw Alec and Jondy coming into TC looking awfully cosy . . .  
  
As soon as Max had left, the three of them all looked at each other uncertainly. "That girl has serious issues," said Kat. "Looks, guys I really don't want to believe that what she said is true but she spoke with such conviction and assurance until the end that she almost had me convinced," said Syl who was clearly upset by her sisters suspicions.  
  
"Could you imagine if she was right and her and Alec broke up? I sure as hell couldn't. Those two are inseparable, I can't imagine if they weren't together," said Zane.  
  
Syl and Kat were disturbed by this thought. They had both became so used to Max and Alec's little teasing sessions and how sweet they were together.  
  
"I must admit, I have never seen Max so happy as when the two of them are together. When I last saw her, over a year ago before she met Alec, she was serious and almost sad and distant. He has really helped her not to take things so seriously, well she is less serious anyway," said Syl after seeing them raise their eyebrows at her mention of Max not being serious.  
  
"Look, Alec and Jondy are just not like that I mean it may look bad from Max's perspective but if Alec cheated on Max I would make out with Krit!" said Zane.  
  
"Oh, no you bloody well won't," said Syl as Kat started laughing again.  
  
Max was rather unsettled at the sight of Alec walking along with his arm around Jondy after just managing to convince herself that it was all in her head. He obviously hadn't spotted her yet from the deliriously happy grin on his face but when he finally did he panicked and blurred, pushing himself and Jondy into an alley in the hope Max hadn't seen him.  
  
Max wrecked her brain for another reason to why this happened and when she failed to, she braced herself for the worse and walked past the alley and from her peripheral she could see Alec bending down and giving Jondy kiss on the cheek before walking out onto the main street again.  
  
When he didn't run to catch up with her Max realised that he must be heading back to their apartment. Blinking the tears away that she could feel forming in her eyes she put her head up and went round to her office in HQ where she could cry in private.  
  
An hour later, their was a knock on the door, using the sleeves on her top Max wiped away the remaining drops on her now tear stained face and croaked a "Who is it?" It turned out to be Jace who immediately noticed that something was wrong and when she noticed her red puffy eyes, she knew that Max had been crying.  
  
She put her arms around Max's shoulders and led her to the couch asking her "What's the matter, what's happened that was got you so upset?" The feeling of her sisters' comforting embrace Max felt like braking down and crying all over again, telling her what she had saw but Max being Max used all her will power to pull herself out of Jace's reach and insist that every thing was fine.  
  
Although Jace was less than convinced, she decided to let it go knowing that Max was stubborn and could work through on her own so she decided to change the subject. "Well I was sent to get you and bring you down to the hall. We are going to have a bit of a celebration you know since we are actually managing to survive in this dump and we thought that we all needed a break."  
  
"Ok," said Max, knowing that she would have too face Alec and Jondy sometime. "Well come on then and let's get you cleaned up a bit."  
  
They went up to Max's apartment and Max looked around for traces of Alec's presence as it didn't appear that he had been there she asked Jace if he was going. "Yeah, he's already down there, he left earlier to go check on Jen," she informed her.  
  
Max washed her face so that she could hide the fact that she had been crying and put on a clean, fresh top. Pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she and Jace headed down to the bar.  
  
It was only when she was about to enter the bar that Jace stopped her. "No, we are not in the bar tonight." Jace led a confused Max round to a dimly lit hall with gentle music coming from it. There were several little tables and chairs set out around it and at one of them, Max noticed, Alec and Jondy were sitting round one.  
  
All of her 'siblings' were there as well as several other TC residents. Alec and Jondy stood up as soon as soon as they noticed Max. All of a sudden, everyone with the exception of Alec started to head out of the room.  
  
Max realised that now was not the time to be sad or mopy (finally free of Logan's influence!!!!) but it was in fact the time for her to be very mad. "Wait!" she yelled and everyone stopped to turn round and see what she had to say.  
  
"I know what is going on," she told Alec quietly.  
  
"Excuse me?" he asked looking slightly panicked.  
  
"Oh, come on you have been at it all day!" she said finding the strength in her voice so that she was almost shouting.  
  
When Alec didn't say anything it just made Max madder. "What, surely you didn't think that I wouldn't find out?"  
  
"Well I must admit I did think that someone would slip up and tell you," he said.  
  
"What . . . other people know? How?"  
  
"I told them," he stated simply, "It wasn't exactly something I could hide from everyone."  
  
"Who else knows?"  
  
He looked around the room. "Just about everyone here and a few others."  
  
Max felt betrayed, these were the people she trusted the most, "why didn't you tell me?" she asked feeling weak and useless.  
  
"Alec asked us not to, he didn't want you to know, for obvious reasons," Jace told her.  
  
Getting angry again as she felt her blood begin to boil she started shouting again, "Well isn't that nice, at least he tried to cover it up, but what you take his side now and does what he says? I'm your sister you should have told me!"  
  
"We're sorry Max but we agreed with Alec and thought that it would be best if you didn't know," said Krit, "but you don't have to make us feel guiltier than we already do for not telling you, I mean we wanted to but we promised that we wouldn't."  
  
Max looked round at Syl, Kat and Zane to whom he had confided in earlier, "Why didn't you three tell me?"  
  
"We only found out about half an hour ago," said Kat.  
  
"Look Max, I really think that . . ." began Jondy but she was cut of by an extremely pissed of Max.  
  
"Don't you talk to me!" she yelled, her voice filled with hatred and venom. "You ruined my life, everyone said you were not capable of it but when it comes down to it they obviously don't know you very well because it seems that you are having an affair with my boyfriend!"  
  
The hall came to a standstill now that Max had finally said it and that everything out in the open.  
  
Just 5 reviews and you get the day from Alec's point of view! I told you this would be a long chapter, that was only the first half!  
  
So here are the rants that I promised! Enjoy!  
  
Down-Ass-Bitch's 'little' rant. And btw I think they were about the same length!  
  
(You think your rant was long, wait 'till you see mine. Lol!)  
  
Hey girl, I couldn't agree more with you about how you feel about Logan. He gets on my nerves so much! And M/L relationship I could not hate more! Instead of them being comfortable and relaxed around each other, their always so uptight! (even without the virus!) And it never dawned on them that maybe they weren't ment to be if something is always keeping them apart. They must be the lamest, most pathetic couple in history! They have the same relationship I have with my dad! (except for the whole french kissing thing in sesason 1!) All they do is eat pasta and he sends her on all these dangerous missions like he wants her to die! I'm not sayin' he should put her on a leash, but it's like he's setting up a trap for her. And I totally agree with Jt in her story 'Jamie' she says Max is the leader of the transgenic community. The transgenics would never accept her if her partner is an ordinary! That be like if I was against blacks and my boyfriend was Pharacon! You know what i'm sayin'? Anyway, (I could go on and on) I love this story and keep it up!  
  
Kim's Rant-I especially love 'slimy and mopy' it just about sums Logan up!  
  
lol this chapter was great but what's better was your view on logan! lol i totally agree he's slimy and mopy! and ur so right about him dragging max into the world of the moping too! in the first series she was this kick ass chick who just all out rocked and whenever she stole something i found it amusing. she was like the alec (but a lil bit more sensible) of the first series. lol if her character still acted like that id so love her to then bicker with alec! that'd be so funny!rnrnanyway back to logan... ack! i think he's a user too! he hasnt helped max one bit in finding her brothers in sisters and she goes on so many crappy EO missions for him! logan is way too serious for his own good! And no one like max would date an old freak like logan!rnrnok sorry about that... i just happen to hate logan too!rnPost another chapter quick! 


	13. The day With Two Faces 2

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 13: The Day with Two Faces- Part Two.  
  
A/N: Big thanks to everyone who reviewed. I got like nine within 24hrs of posting it so here is your reward. But that doesn't mean since you got what you wanted that I have to necessary keep up my quick updates so keep reviewing!  
  
THE DAY FROM ALEC'S POINT OF VIEW  
  
Alec woke up at dawn, he had barley got any sleep that night and he was nervous that he would be found out. He had to go and see Jondy at half eight and as it was only half six he got dressed and went for a run to try to clear his head.  
  
It was quite a cool morning and there were very few people about, after they got out of Manticore, lie-ins were considered a blessing. 'Shame I can't seem to have any lately.'  
  
He dropped round to the cantine where they were only starting to open up. "Hey, Alec," said Jess, who was the in charge of it, "You are up early, don't usually see you until after the morning meetings. Trouble sleeping?"  
  
"Something like that," he admitted, sitting down at a near-by table. "So what would you like, the kitchen should be up and running in five minutes."  
  
"Uh, some cheese on toast would be great," he said.  
  
"No problem, it'll be ready in about ten."  
  
"Thanks Jess."  
  
Alec sat with his hands in his head thinking about what he was going to do; it was something he never thought that he ever would do. He was going to tell Max that he was going out to order to supplies, which he was but it still felt like a lie to him.  
  
When Jess put a plate in front of him, he snapped out of his daze. "Oh that reminds me, I'm going out later to order more supplies, what do you need for the kitchen?"  
  
"Uh well just more basic food essentials I suppose, we are almost out of flour and sugar. Oh we need more pasta, noodles and rice and well anything else is just a bonus," she said.  
  
"Ok and I will see if my contacts can get a hold of a new oven," he said.  
  
"That would be great, the one we have is really slow." She left Alec to his breakfast and his problems.  
  
Once he was finished, he headed back to the apartment when he noticed it was just after eight. When he got in Max was still asleep but Jen was now lying wide-awake in her cot.  
  
Grinning he picked her up and cradled her in his arms, changed her nappy and started to get her bottle ready. He was half way through feeding her when Max finally woke up. 'Thank god, it's half eight I would've had to wake her up in a few minutes, I'm going to be late.'  
  
"Good morning," she said. "What time is it? " She asked getting up and kissing him on the way to the bathroom.  
  
"Half eight, meeting is in half an hour you've got plenty of time. Though I do have something to do before the meeting so can you take Jen down to the nursery this morning?" he asked.  
  
"Sure just put her in the cot and go, I will be ready in five minutes and will bring her down then, ok?" she asked while brushing her teeth.  
  
"Thanks, bye sweetie, see you later."  
  
He gently placed Jen in the cot after winding her and kissed Max quickly on the cheek before rushing out the door. He ran to Jondy's apartment knowing he was late.  
  
He knocked quickly and waited for her to answer the door. "How many times have I told you to just open the door and walk in?" she asked, clearly annoyed that she had to get up and move.  
  
"Sorry, I know and usually I would but I seem to be getting a lot of bad habits recently so I thought that I might as well try and cut out one of them," he explained.  
  
"Fine," said Jondy, "but nobody else does so next time when I refuse to get up and you are standing there for ages you'll know why and it will be your own fault."  
  
"You are really against movement aren't you?" he asked sitting on the bed beside her.  
  
"Well not all types of movement," she said, a double edge to her voice as she inched closer towards him.  
  
He grinned after figuring out what was coming next but not fast enough to dodge the pillow that had just made contact with the back of his head.  
  
"Hey, not fair!" he yelled, picking up a pillow of his own. "You didn't say pillow fight."  
  
"Sorry," said Jondy. "PILLOW FIGHT!"  
  
They soon began in true teenage fashion a fully-fledged pillow fight. They ran around the room hitting each other with pillows, running into things and knocking them down. The fight ended only when Jondy made a dive for Alec's ankles, tackling him to the ground.  
  
They both lay on the floor out of breath, with their clothes out of place and feathers in their hair. "I can't believe you bust open my pillow!" said Jondy. "What will I do know?" she said with mock anger.  
  
"Well I'm going out today and I'll get you a new one, you can have mine until then, I don't seem to sleep anymore anyway. It's like I caught Max's shark DNA or something," he joked.  
  
"Well anyway about later, we need red wine and romantic music," said Jondy sitting up and trying to get the feathers out of her hair.  
  
"No way," protested Alec. "Are you trying to turn me gay or something? Was the pillow fight not enough for? I feel girly enough for one day and do not need red wine and romantic music to get me more connected with my feminine side that I already am thank you very much!"  
  
"Fine, we will compromise, white wine and, 'soothing' music."  
  
"But I don't like wine or soothing music," complained Alec.  
  
"Yes, but Max likes wine and I seriously doubt that she will appreciate Blink 182 blasting in the background as you pop the question."  
  
Alec crumpled up his face and groaned rolling over. "Can you please not talk about it and especially like that? I'm shittin' it as it is never mind with you harping on about it constantly. I almost wish I never told you."  
  
Jondy grinned, "Why Alec, anyone would think you are nervous," she said faking innocence and surprise.  
  
"Then anyone is right," he mumbled, his face still in the carpet.  
  
"Besides you need my help." Seeing that Alec still wasn't feeling any better she started reassuring him.  
  
Jondy rolled over to him and put her arm around him. "Look you have noting to worry about, she loves you and is hardly going to turn you down, well unless you don't move right now, it is five past nine," she said getting up.  
  
"Shit!" he yelled.  
  
They both ran for the door at the same time, neither of them bothering to straighten themselves out. Max hated people being late and this was so the wrong day for her to be mad at Alec.  
  
They practically blurred all the way to TC well that was until Alec went so fast that he ran into a wall that stopped Jondy as well who just had to roll about laughing. Feeling extremely stupid Alec stood up grinning sheepishly. He tried helping Jondy up of the ground but she insisted, between laughs, that she couldn't get up.  
  
"Go . . .on . . . without me," she said, still laughing, so much in fact that there were tears tripping down her face and she was clutching her stomach in an attempt to make it hurt less.  
  
"I never leave a soldier behind," said Alec jokingly but getting increasingly worried about the time.  
  
"Fine have it your way then," said Alec when he saw that there was no chance of her willingly getting up so he leaned down, picked her up and threw her over his right shoulder and began to run.  
  
"Put me down!" she yelled, hammering at his back with her fists, only when they arrived outside HQ that Alec put her down. All the running had made him a little flushed and Jondy was still sore from laughing so they quite literally stumbled into the meeting.  
  
"Sorry Max," said Jondy as her and Alec slipped into their seats. "We uh . . . got caught up in something. Alec couldn't help but laugh but seeing that Max did not look to please he tried to cover it with a cough but it didn't help to see that Jondy was openly smiling.  
  
"Ok," said Max unsurely, "Just make sure it doesn't happen again. We were talking about planning the attack. Dix's broadcast seems to have worked, already we have had three X-5's show up. Apparently the code . . ." but Alec did not hear anymore than that, he was too busy worrying over that nights events.  
  
He was going into town with Jondy, who was helping him make sure it was just right, to get the ring something that terrified him as it made it seem more final. He had never been so worried or nervous in his entire life and this fact only unnerved him even more, so basically he wasn't feeling to great.  
  
Not to mention that Jondy kept looking over at him with this knowing little smiles that were driving him crazy. He would have to leave quickly after the meeting so that Max wouldn't ask him any questions about it, he wanted to make absolutely sure that it was a surprise.  
  
Seeing that everyone seemed to be getting up the meeting appeared to be over so he rose from his seat and headed out the door and round the back of the building to the main entrance/exit to TC, without even so much as looking at Max.  
  
Jondy had to do something first though he wasn't quite sure what but he though she had said something about a hall. Breaking away from his thoughts he felt a hand on his shoulder, Max's hand.  
  
"Hey, where are you of to?" she asked.  
  
"I'm going to order supplies, remember?" he said, glad that she had assigned him to this particular job so that he didn't have to think something up.  
  
. "Well I'll go with you then, keep you company and all that," she suggested, looking at him hopefully.  
  
"No," he said quickly, thinking up an excuse, he couldn't buy a ring when she was there. "You probably have better things to do and it really is a one man job.  
  
"Oh," said Max, who looked disappointed. "Well you better get going then. I will probably spent most of the day cleaning or sorting out the medical supplies."  
  
"Ok, well I'll see you later." He gave her a quick kiss before hurrying off towards the gates. 'That was a close one,' he thought as he leaned against the wall waiting for Jondy. 'I thought she knew for a second.'  
  
He stood up straight a few minutes later when he saw Jondy running over to him, "Let's go," she said as they walked out of TC. "Ok, so Jace and Krit are going to organise everything else, they are going to talk to Alicia about fixing up this hall that will be perfect and to Jess about food and stuff.  
  
"What did they say when you told hem why?" asked Alec wanting to know their reactions. "They were both really happy and excited for yous. Now are we going to order supplies or shop for jewellery first?"  
  
"Uh, supplies, the guy I know can get us everything and he is just round the corner," said Alec.  
  
After Alec and Jondy had ordered all the supplies they went round to the jewellery shop, the bit Alec was dreading. "So tell me again why I can't just give you the money and let you go in and pick one while I just stand here?" asked Alec, standing outside the shop.  
  
"Because I said so, now come on!" said Jondy who had to practically pull him in. The shop was not as Alec had expected, her had robbed plenty of jewellery stores in his time but he had obviously hit the wrong ones.  
  
All the other stores and been like everything else in Seattle, run down and just about standing, this place however was completely different. The Foggle Towers of sector five. There was no other word for it; the place was still 'posh'. 'Probably owned by rich kid,' thought Alec who felt very out of place and rather uncomfortable.  
  
Jondy however, looked like she was in her seventh heaven, she ran about studying the contents of each display case at length before finally calling over to Alec, "This is it, this is the one!"  
  
Alec walked over to where Jondy was standing and immediately knew which ring she was taking about before she even pointed it out. It was a plain silver band with a simple square cut diamond, it was not overly flashy like some of the other rings but that was what made it so perfect.  
  
"You know Jondy, I think you are right."  
  
When they got back to Terminal City, if it was possible Alec was more nervous than he had been that morning. He and Jondy were waking along the streets going over what Jondy had named 'Operation Max and Alec.'  
  
"Okay so we can go round to the hall to set things up, where I'm sure everybody else is. Then we can get something to go get Max and tell her that that she has to go and get cleaned up because we are celebrating surviving in TC."  
  
"Then at the last minute they bring her round to the hall and then everyone else discreetly leaves and when she asks what is going on I tell her that I just thought that we needed a break," finished Alec who was surprised how well things had come together.  
  
He out his arm around Jondy's shoulders, "Thanks Jondy, really I wouldn't have been able to do this without you. I don't know how to repay you," he said feeling grateful that she had been so helpful.  
  
"No problem Alec, you make Max happy and that is payment I enough."  
  
"Shit there is Max!" said Alec pushing Jondy into a near-by alley between buildings, hoping to god Max had not seen him. He had the ring in his pocket and Max always put her hands in his jacket pocket when she hugged him, he had always found it cute but not in this situation.  
  
They stayed in silence for a few minutes, "Ok, I think she has gone," he whispered. He bent down and gave Jondy a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for everything really."  
  
Jondy smiled and hugged him and rested her head on his shoulder and whispered into his ear, "Oh and by the way I've changed my mind and thought that I would let you know that I like cards."  
  
Alec laughed and said goodbye, heading for the apartment. When he reached there he flopped on the bed, exhausted and for about an hour he just slept, finally content and happy only waking when Jondy came in to get him saying that he had to move because Jace was away to bring Max up to the apartment.  
  
Alec ran his hands through his hair and followed Jondy out of the apartment, only stopping at the nursery to see Jen. No matter how he justified it to himself, he still felt bad leaving her to someone else's care everyday and he knew it affected Max as well. He knew that it was the only option and that everyone else did it as well but he still felt bad about it.  
  
Then, finally, he put her down and went round to the hall with Jondy. The sight in from of him amazed him. Everyone had really done a great job; the place was dimly lit with, romantic music playing. There were a few tables with chairs set around them with candles placed in the middle. Alec smiled noting the bottle of red wine that was placed on the centre table knowing that Jondy had gotten her way. He could smell the most delicious food coming from the adjacent room and he knew that Jess had worked her magic again . . . everything was quite simply, perfect.  
  
Then Syl and Kat came over to him and hugged him, "You better do this right," said Syl jokingly. "Oh by the way Alec, what we said to you in San Francisco remains true, hurt her we'll kill you," said Krit who despite the threat he had just given Alec, was smiling.  
  
When a few of the other TC residents who had helped out looked at him dubiously, his grin widened, "Well, we'll try anyway." Alec gulped again, getting increasingly nervous as the situation was becoming rapidly more real. He could tell form the amount of friendly faces around the room, that he was doing the right thing, it was about time that he got round to proposing and if it weren't for these people it mightn't have been as perfect. He looked over to see Jondy looking particularly happy. 'And if it weren't for Jondy this might never have happened at all,' he thought.  
  
He was extremely grateful for all of Max's siblings, especially Jondy. They had all just accepted him and treated him like he had always had been 'one of them'. Now, at the 'golden moment' he was appreciative more than ever of their support, because he knew that if they didn't like him, his relationship and credibility with Max would be non-existent.  
  
"Look guys, I'd just like to thank everyone for all their help and support, really it has been very much appreciated. I don't know what I can do to repay you, I mean I already know that Jondy likes appreciation shown in the form of cards but, well if you ever need anything, just ask. I'll be eternally grateful. Well unless she turns me down," he joked, making everyone laugh.  
  
He moved over to the table and sat down fumbling with a certain box in his pocket.  
  
"You, ok?"  
  
Alec looked up to see Jondy sitting in the place opposite him. I will be, soon. I'm just a little nervous I guess."  
  
Jondy raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Ok, extremely nervous, enough to make earlier's state of nervousness non- existence, so much so that I can't seem to stop saying the word nervous."  
  
Jondy smiled, comfortingly at him, "You'll be fine and if not, you'll soon find out, here comes the guest of honour good luck. It's about time for me to exit . . . stage right," she said standing up.  
  
"Still watching cartoons I see."  
  
"Still making sarcastic remarks I see."  
  
Alec watched as Max looked around confused at everybody 'subtly' leaving the room and at that moment, she had never been more beautiful to him. Her face was fresh looking and clean, with her hair pulled back and right then, at that very moment, any doubts Alec had faded away.  
  
"Wait!" Alec frowned as her sudden shout caused everyone to stop moving. He stood up and walked over to her, a questioning look on his face.  
  
"I know what is going on," she told Alec quietly.  
  
"Excuse me?" he asked looking slightly panicked.  
  
"Oh, come on you have been at it all day!" she practically shouted.  
  
When Alec didn't say anything, all the planning, gone to waste, she had found out and was for some reason mad.  
  
"What, surely you didn't think that I wouldn't find out?"  
  
"Well I must admit I did think that someone would slip up and tell you," he said, feeling rather sheepish.  
  
"What . . . other people know? How?"  
  
"I told them," he stated simply, "It wasn't exactly something I could hide from everyone."  
  
"Who else knows?"  
  
He looked around the room. "Just about everyone here and a few others."  
  
Alec felt guilty, she was probably upset that he had told other people he was going to ask her to marry him before he asked her. He would just have to explain that there was no way around it, when he got the chance. Max was now taking it out on her siblings for not telling her.  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked them.  
  
"Alec asked us not to, he didn't want you to know, for obvious reasons," Jace told her.  
  
"Well isn't that nice, at least he tried to cover it up, but what you take his side now and does what he says? I'm your sister you should have told me!" she said, getting very angry.  
  
"We're sorry Max but we agreed with Alec and thought that it would be best if you didn't know," said Krit, "but you don't have to make us feel guiltier than we already do for not telling you, I mean we wanted to but we promised that we wouldn't."  
  
Max looked round at Syl, Kat and Zane in particular, "Why didn't you three tell me?"  
  
"We only found out about half an hour ago," said Kat.  
  
"Look Max, I really think that . . ." began Jondy but she was cut of by an extremely pissed of Max.  
  
"Don't you talk to me!" she yelled, her voice filled with hatred and venom. "You ruined my life, everyone said you were not capable of it but when it comes down to it they obviously don't know you very well because it seems that you are having an affair with my boyfriend!"  
  
The hall came to a standstill and Alec felt his jaw hit the ground, his stomach churn and his eyes fill with sadness, pain and anger. 


	14. Calm Before the Storm

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 14: Calm Before the Storm.  
  
A/N: New chapters people!!! Are you excited? I am! Well not really it means I am going to have to become regular with my updating, something I'm not particularly good at. But anyway here you go!  
  
"Excuse me?" said Jondy, who appeared to be as surprised at this news as everyone else was. "You heard me," said Max as confident as ever. Surely, after all of this she wasn't going to deny it was she?  
  
"Sure ok, so Maxie, when did you start on the drugs?" she asked certain that Max had gone completely mad.  
  
"So you are going to deny it now?"  
  
"Nothing to deny."  
  
"Then what were you talking about just now, what everyone was talking about?"  
  
"Alec, would you like to clear things up for Little Miss Fruit loop?" asked Jondy looking round at Alec who hadn't said anything. She was disturbed by what she saw when he looked up, his eyes were so full of anger and it scared Jondy.  
  
He walked over to Max and placed the ring box in her hand before walking out of the hall. Confused Max looked down at it, 'no, it couldn't be, could it?' she thought staring down at the little black box she was now holding in her hand. She opened it slowly and cautiously almost hoping that she was wrong and that she hadn't made a huge mistake.  
  
She had. She couldn't believe it, he was going to propose to her, 'that's why he had been sneaking around all day and why . . .' Max closed her eyes unable to believe what an idiot she had been as everything worked itself out in her head, and it all made logical sense.  
  
"Shit!"  
  
She looked up to see everyone staring at like her, they never thought that she could have made such an error in judgement. She realised then just how good of an impression Alec had made on them all in a reasonably short period of time. "Well what are you waiting for?" asked Jace. "Go after him!"  
  
Not waiting for anything else to be said she ran silently out of the hall, hopefully in the direction he went and like in all good dramatic moments, the heavens opened and the rain started to pelt down.  
  
She spent over an hour running around TC in the pouring rain before she realised there was only one place that he could be. Rubbing the rain out of her eyes, she headed towards the Space Needle.  
  
Alec sat on top of the Space Needle, staring out over the city. He sat letting the heavy drops of rain drip down his face hoping that they could wash away Max's accusations with them. Unfortunately, they couldn't so he was left to deal with it by himself. After all the trouble he had went to, to make sure Max was happy she still didn't trust him.  
  
"Go away Max," he said as her heard her behind him.  
  
"Alec, let me explain," she said almost pleadingly, not even bothering to ask how he knew it was her, he always did, it was like a sixth sense for him which currently was only making her feel worse.  
  
"I said go away," he repeated more forcefully, not wanting to have to deal with Max right now. With the state of mind he was currently in the chances that he would say something that he would live to regret were high.  
  
"Look Alec, I'm sorry, I just thought that . . ."  
  
Alec rolled his eyes and as she didn't appear to be picking up on his subtle signals he decided to give her a piece of his mind hoping that she would get the hint and leave.  
  
"Thought what Max? That Alec the screw up was just doing what he does best? Why must you always assume the worst of me and never think otherwise Max? You always do it, then you apologise but there are only so many apologies a person can accept before they stop sounding like you mean it. I mean at this point you begin to realise that if you really were sorry you would have simply stopped putting yourself in situations where you need to apologise! Or did that thought never occur to you? To actually trust me? God forbid, Max trust Alec? Never, I mean if you did the stars would probably collide and we'd be seeing four strange looking figures riding through the sky on fiery horses about now," ranted Alec, spitting the words out of his mouth passionately, bitterness, anger and hurt evident in every word.  
  
Max felt more tears running down her cheeks, mixing with the raindrops that were falling so heavily and she couldn't think of what do say. He was right, from day one, she had never given him a chance and she had just never seemed to get out of the habit of assuming that he was going to mess her life up.  
  
"So were you really going to do it?" she asked quietly.  
  
"You know I was, well from about an hour ago anyway. I mean really how could you think I was cheating on you? With Jondy of all people. Ok so I can just about see why you thought I was doing something because let's be honest it's me and in your eyes I'm always doing the wrong thing, but why would you not trust Jondy, always got the impression she was your favourite sister?"  
  
"It wasn't about Jondy that much it was just." Max paused looking up at the sky desperately.  
  
"What? It was just me you couldn't trust?" interrupted Alec who was only getting madder. He looked over at her quickly and then went back to staring straight ahead, looking at her hurt. "Look Max," he said calmer than before. "I just need to work things out by myself, you know, think things through. Just leave me alone and for the love of God stop digging yourself in deeper; you're only making things worse."  
  
"Are you . . ."  
  
"Just go," he said in a finalising tone of voice, which made Max realise that she wouldn't get anything else out of him for the moment. As she left the Space Needle silently, searching her brain for another time when Alec had been mad at her. There were very few moments and those she could think of were short and brief and solved quickly. 'Great, that means I have really hurt him,' she thought realising just how much of a mess everything was all because her mind was warped and twisted.  
  
She found herself wandering along the streets of Seattle until she came across a familiar building, and then a familiar corridor, followed by a familiar door and a familiar face.  
  
When Alec finally returned to Terminal City, it was five in the morning so he headed to HQ to avoid running into Max back at the apartment. When he opened the door into his office, he was faced with Jondy, Jace, Kat, Krit and Zane. "So did Max find you? Have you two sorted things out yet?" quizzed Jace.  
  
"Yes she found me but things are not 'sorted'" said Alec using air quotes. "Has she not came back yet?" he asked, failing in his attempt to hide his concern.  
  
"No, Cindy phoned a while a go to say Max was staying with her tonight," said Krit. "So where's. . ."  
  
"Syl is looking after Jen back at yours," filled in Kat.  
  
"Thanks, look I think I'm just going to crash, I'm kind tired and well . . ."  
  
"Not so fast, you're not getting away that easy, what happened?" asked Zane.  
  
Alec sighed knowing he would have to tell them what had happened though he had hoped Max had already done that. "Look, she found me and we talked a bit but then I asked her to leave and finally she did. It is just one of those things I'll have to work through on my own, there is nothing she can say or do to fix it. By going on at me she is only making things worse."  
  
"Don't," he said when Jondy went to talk. "You don't have to defend her, I just, I just, I just can't believe her, I mean relationships are supposed to be based on trust so if she doesn't trust me . . ."  
  
He looked round at the horrified faces he was now faced with when his words had sunk in. "Nothing for definite or anything," he said raising his hands defensively, "But this isn't the first time she has showed that she doesn't trust me one hundred percent, it would be different if I gave her reason not to but I don't! You saw how she acted when we were trying to get TC up and running, she treated me as though I was going to mess everything up and it didn't even occur to her that knew what I was doing! I just, I just need time."  
  
When he looked at them, he saw a definite pause in their eyes that meant that on some level they agreed with him, seizing the opportunity he left before they could snap out of it and make him talk things through.  
  
"Max, doesn't always, um, damn it! He's right guys," said Jace. "Max never gives him a chance."  
  
"Yeah but we can't just do nothing, they love each other," said Jondy.  
  
"But unfortunately that's not the problem, Alec knows Max loves him, she just doesn't trust him."  
  
Max had been crying for an hour straight and Original Cindy hadn't got a word out of her and therefore didn't have a clue what had happened. Her one piece of knowledge was that she at least knew whom it had to do with.  
  
Alec.  
  
He was the only person who could have gotten her this upset but the reason was what OC couldn't come up with. The only thing she could think of was that Max had been right and had cheated on her but she found that very unlikely. Finally, when Max calmed down a bit and regained regular breathing patterns they began to talk.  
  
"He was going to propose!" she said as she gratefully accepted the cup of coffee OC had just handed her before sitting next to her on the couch.  
  
That had definitely not been what Original Cindy had been expecting. "Ok slow down there, cause unless you are trying to tell me that those were tears of joy, which I doubt, Original Cindy is well and truly lost."  
  
"But to do it he had been sneaking around a lot with Jondy to make sure it was a surprise which is what lead to my suspicions but I didn't realise this until after I had accused him of cheating in front of everybody! Then he got really angry and stormed out placing the ring in my hand then I couldn't find him and spent hours looking for him in the rain. Then when I finally found him we had this fight and he asked me to leave and now I don't know what to do!"  
  
"Damn you transgenics talk fast," said OC trying to take it all in. "But I don't get it, why is he so angry, no harm no foul like."  
  
"It's because this proves I don't trust him, that I never did. It's just that I find it so hard to open up to people and . . ."  
  
"I know, I know Boo, he'll come round eventually," said OC reassuringly.  
  
"I don't know OC, I really hurt him this time," said Max, who despite OC's reassuring words couldn't bring herself to be optimistic about the situation. 'Hell even transgenics have to have some limits to what they can put up with,' she thought miserably.  
  
For the first time in her entire life, Max was faced with a problem that she didn't know how to handle, and she was really scared.  
  



	15. Aftershocks

The Surprise  
  
Chapter 15: Aftershocks  
  
It had been three days since Max's outburst and in Terminal City things had gone from bad to worse. Not only were Max and Alec not talking but also Alec refused to be in the same room as her, which was making life difficult for everyone.  
  
Eventually, Jondy took charge and decided that something needed o be done. She had went to find Max who was not being very co-operative. "Hey it's him who isn't talking to me!" she protested when Jondy had started ranting at her. "I'm the one who wants to sit down and talk things through but he won't even look at me anymore. . . not that I can blame him," she added quietly.  
  
"You've just hurt him, really bad yeah, but you have to try," pleaded Jondy.  
  
"Look, I'm not denying that this is my fault, but all I am saying is that it is him you need to talk to not me."  
  
Taking Max's advice, Jondy went to talk to Alec whom she found in his office staring mindlessly into space. "Can I talk to you a second?"  
  
"Sure," he said snapping out of his trance and turning round in his chair to face her. "What's up?" he said running his hands through his hair.  
  
"About this thing with Max," she started. Suddenly a frown came over Alec's face and Jondy could see him tense up. "I don't want to talk about it," he said quietly, with a cold, harsh look in his eyes and Jondy could tell he meant it but Jondy being Jondy decided that she had had enough and that something had to be done.  
  
"Look here..."  
  
"I said I don't want to talk about it!" yelled Alec, angry himself, he got up to storm out heading towards the door but Jondy's strong arm shot out in front of him and held the door firmly shut.  
  
"I don't give a damn whether or not you 'want' to talk about it because you are sure as hell gonna. Don't be so friggen selfish! Your decisions don't just affect you anymore, they affect all of us and you need to realise that. We are falling behind on a rapidly growing to do list, no-one has been on any sort of mission and jobs aren't being done all because you two aren't communicating. You need to see the bigger picture and soon, I know Max hurt you. . . "  
  
"Nicely understated."  
  
"But you can't just mope around forever, if things don't get up and running again we might as well just lie down and wait for Ames White and his merry men to come and kill us! TC is your shared responsibility, you work best as a team, you are our leaders and we all look up to you so when you don't know what to do it has a knock on effect. Our lives are in your hands and everyday that you two don't work it brings us closer to failure!"  
  
"You think I don't know that?" Alec exploded all his pent up frustrations coming to the surface.  
  
"No actually I don't think you do. I know how bad things are right now and how angry you are and how much pain you are in, and you have every right to feel as you do but if you don't pull yourself out of your rut soon and start acting civilly to each other the familiars will win and people will die!"  
  
Finally talking her hand off the door Jondy stood back and let Alec see the understanding in her eyes. "Look no-one expects you to go about as if nothing happened but look at it this way, the sooner we kick Ames White's ass the quicker you can go back to brooding or you never know, you and Max could even sort things out," she said in a soft, sympathetic tone. "Just know I'm there for you when you want to start talking, alright?" Giving him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, she left him to his own thoughts.  
  
"Well?" asked Zane upon her return.  
  
"I don't know, they are both as stubborn as each other," said Jondy sitting on the desk. She had called everyone together and one way or the other she was planning to get things back on track.  
  
"Well they say time heals all wounds," offered Syl earning her an annoyed look from Zane.  
  
"Yeah well we are running out of time," said Mole, puffing away on his cigar. "I say we give both of them a good kick up the ass, tell them to grow up and get over it."  
  
"Well that will give us a few bruises then land us right back where we started," said Kat. "What we have to do is make her trust him," she stated as if it was the simplest thing in the world.  
  
"Genius!" said Zane with mock excitement. "Wow Captain Obvious, how in the world did you come up with that one?"  
  
"I'm just saying," said Kat.  
  
"Well don't, not unless you have something productive to say. Hell, I'll even settle for mildly helpful cause the only was that was helpful was that that it reminded me of the phrase 'No shit Sherlock!'"  
  
"Actually, she was helpful, very helpful in fact," said Jondy who was now smiling.  
  
"Don't give us that look just tell us what you are thinking," said Jace rolling her eyes.  
  
"What look?"  
  
"That 'I've just figured everything out' look," said Krit who like the rest of them knew Jondy's little personality quirks like the back of his hand. "Occasionally when you give that look I think you are about to spill the secret to world peace," he admitted, knowing that the rest of them had probably thought the same thing on at least one occasion.  
  
Jondy grinned, blushing slightly at how predictable she had become. "And maybe one day I will, but for now I will settle for peace between Max and Alec. This thanks to Kat I know how to do. All we have to do is get Max to trust Alec again, and make sure he realises that she does as well," said Jondy looking smug. She looked around her as if waiting for the thundering applause and praise, which never came.  
  
"Was that a delayed echo?" asked Zane, who was getting more pissed off by the second. "I just shouted at Kat for saying that so please don't make me slap you around little sis."  
  
"Like you could 'big bro' I pummelled your ass when I was nine and I can do it again. But that aside unlike Kat, I know exactly how to make her trust him and let him know she means it this time. Ok so here's what we are going to do. . ."  
  
Alec was wondering about Terminal City by himself. He was in the middle of an emotional dilemma because although he would never admit it Jondy had really gotten to him. All of a sudden, he felt torn between loyalty to himself and loyalty to the rest of TC who worked their asses of every day to do what he asked them to do. While walking around TC he noticed that some people were working but not enough, without orders they were all a little lost, the transgenics who had just gotten out felt it was not their place to take the initiative to do things without instruction, which is exactly why they need leadership.  
  
Running his fingers through his hair he let out a groan of frustration, he needed to clear his head so he could think straight. Looking about he quickly hopped over the walls while no one was looking and decided to go for a ride. He knew where Max's motorbike was and although she bit the head of everyone who even went near it he figured that even if she did find out she wouldn't have the nerve to say anything.  
  
For the first time in days Alec felt at peace with the wind rushing through his hair and beating so hard on his face it was almost stinging him as he speeded through the empty streets of Seattle.  
  
Max smiled, as Jen giggled at her while she was feeding her her lunch. It still amazed Max that anything on this earth could make her feel the way that Jen did. She was always happy when she had Jen with her no matter what the circumstances and even though right now she could loose one of the most important people in her life she felt strangely content with Jen there with her.  
  
She sighed, the only other person who had ever came close to giving her that similar feeling of contentment was Alec, and she had messed that up. 'I must be seriously self-destructive,' she thought, angry with herself.  
  
"Hey there," said a familiar voice behind her.  
  
Max spun round to see Original Cindy leaning against the doorframe. Max leapt up to give her best friend a hug. "'Kay girl you are gonna have to let go or else I'm not going to be fit to do much of anything, damn transgenic grips."  
  
"Sorry, I'm just so damn glad to see you, I miss you."  
  
"I miss you too boo and well I just figured that you needed a friendly ear and some good advice," said Cindy, sitting down.  
  
"You're right, everyone have been kinda tiptoeing around me these past few days. I mean no one has said anything but I know they all hate me for what I done to Alec. Hell I even hate me for what I did."  
  
"How is Alec?"  
  
"I don't know, we aren't talking, and we haven't even been in each other's presence since it happened. According to Kat, he's pretty much beaten up over the whole thing. He just sits about all day doing nothing which really scares me cause I know Alec, he's the type who gets through things by throwing himself into his work, or his drink. I caught a glimpse of him yesterday and he looked like he was in so much pain, it was like he couldn't bare to look at me. And damn him! He's so friggen stubborn that he will have to work out a few things by himself before I will be able to get through to him and make amends."  
  
"And what if he doesn't some around?"  
  
"Then he doesn't come around."  
  
"And then what?"  
  
Max looked at OC, fighting back the tears that had filled her eyes as she spoke and were now threatening to spill down her face. "And that will be it. After a bit of time we will become civil to each other and maybe even friends but that will be it, it would never be the same. I could loose the best thing I ever had going for me and it will be all my own fault!" she said surrendering and letting the tears flow freely. "Relationships are built on trust, and it's kind of a big thing with Alec and all I have done since we met is show that even in little ways I don't completely trust him! And its so hard cause I want to trust him, I really do but . . ."  
  
Cindy took Max in her arms and let her cry, stroking her hair comfortingly. "Has it ever occurred to you that the reason you don't trust him is because you don't want to?" asked OC.  
  
"Don't be ridiculous! I just said I wanted to, didn't I? And why wouldn't I want to trust him?" Max asked wiping away tears.  
  
"You don't want to trust him because you were afraid. Alec is the first guy that has ever known you as well as he does and that scares you, you had never really let down the barriers with a guy before. Yous are both madly in love with each other and for a while everything appeared to be perfect and usually for you that is when everything starts going wrong. So you kept expecting that floating on air feeling you've been experiencing to end and to fall back to earth.  
  
So you made sure you never trusted him, cause trust gave hope of forever and then you knew that if something did go wrong you would be more heart broken cause you wouldn't have seen it coming. So when you saw him with Jondy all the time you immediately assumed that the end was coming.  
  
I suppose it didn't help that you never really saw him talking to another woman that he wasn't trying to pick up, but that was just a minor detail in Original Cindy's analysis. You were afraid," she repeated again.  
  
"You were afraid because you have been hurt before and you couldn't stand it then and you also knew that it would be worse in this case because your heart was really in it. So in a way you distrusting him was a bit like a safety net, you were prepared for the worse and this was your way of softening the fall," finished OC.  
  
"Damn I'm good," said OC after a few minutes of silence in which Max was reflecting on what she had said.  
  
"How do you know me better than I know myself?" asked Max.  
  
"You transgenics are all the same, you have the wisdom and knowledge there, but its kinda like all that other stuff you can do is clouding it up because it is a very human part of ya. You would have figured it out eventually, but a lot of the time, even for us ordinaries, it is clearer to those merely watching to see the deeper meaning behind it all. And I'm sure given time Alec will realise it as well, he just hasn't been out as long as you so it's even harder for him."  
  
"Don't worry," said OC hugging her friend once again. "Soon everything will be ok again, I promise and after that you should forget all of this analytical bullshit cause as much as it is my speciality, sometimes it takes the fun out of it all. You should just embrace all your irrational feelings and thoughts; you need to take all the risks without the safety net, its part of being in love girl!"  
  
"You know OC, I really, honestly, don't know what I'd do without ya," said Max.  
  
Soon after, Max fell asleep, so Original Cindy took Jen and walked round for a bit before going to the bar where she found all of Max's siblings. She went and sat with them. "Hey girl! Hand over my favourite sort of niece!" said Kat.  
  
OC did, and then looked round at all the faces staring expectantly at her.  
  
"Well?" asked Zane.  
  
"My bit's done," said OC. "I've told her what she needs to know, now the rest is up to you."  
  
A/N: There ya go . . . you are wondering what the big plan is, aren't ya? Don't worry you'll find out next chapter . . . or the one after that, I haven't quite decided yet. also i apologise for lack of dividy things cause they don't seem to come up once i upload them but i swear i've put them in!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed all those chapters that were all brought out together, especially the people who had to find this pen name.  
  
Astra: 3 reviews, woo hoo! Oh and I didn't mean the whole non-shipper comment in a negative way, it was just a question. Dark Angel wasn't just about Max's love interests and I know that I just happen to be MA.  
  
Lolitaro: thanks, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long.   
  
Alexandra Bruderlin: Ok apart from that being quite possibly the longest review I have ever received it was very appreciated and I didn't think it was harsh at all. I know spell check is my friend but some errors just get past me cause it is soooooo-boring re-reading your own story but I am working on it. I hope there aren't too many in this chapter! I do plan on getting more stuff on the other X-5 rouges but one story line at a time is enough for me, but what's all this about Jace having a baby called Max? did I miss an episode? If I did let's just say this is and AU of sorts. Oh and the reason I ask for reviews for chapters cause it gives me an excuse not to post chapters for a while, lol. Well I rambled on their for almost as long as you did in the review, but I did address all the things you brought up, all of which was appreciated. (Do it again!)  
  
Adoria: oh don't you worry she's coming back. I don't want to give too much away but I do plan on bringing back good old Max the kick ass chick. thanks again


	16. The Decoy

Chapter 16: The Decoy

A/N: I know it has been like a year since I updated and most people have probably forgotten that this story ever exsisted and I apologise. It's just been a bad mixture of endless computer problems, writers block, exams, me actually (though very temporarily) getting a life and other stories. The only reason this is up is a severe case of procrastination from revision.

I no longer have microsoft word and the programme that I am using doesn't have spell check and seeing as I can neither type or spell this is probably going to be a mess. Sorry.

Also this isn't that long but I just need to ease myself back into this whole 'updating' thing slowly. Plus not much happens it it, sorry . . . again.

7777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Jondy entered Terminal City's bar area, surveying the local residents in what was now considered their natural habitat. She scanned the room until she found who she was looking for. "Matt!" she exclaimed enthusiastically as she sat on a bar stool beside him. "How are you?" she asked with a beaming smile on her face.

"I'm fine thanks," said Matt with equal enthusiasm, "Now what do you want?" he asked, his tone serious but a small grin on his face.

"Whatever do you mean?" she asked innocently.

"Oh all right I need your help," she admitted when he raised a skeptical eyebrow. "My fellow unit members and I have devised a six step plan to get Max and Alec back together, for good, and hence get things running smoothly round here again."

"About time!" said Matt. "But only six steps? I mean they are pretty complicated people with some rather complex issues, are you really sure that you are going to be able to pull this supposedly miraculous plan off?"

"Are you doubting my greatness?" demanded Jondy, clearly irritated and offended.

"No not at all," said Matt defensively.

"Good," said Jondy, relaxing again, her eyes twinkling mischieviously. "Now step one, 'Insight,' has successfully been carried out. Basically we sent Max's friend around to help her see clearly and now we need your help with stage two, 'The Decoy.'"

"Go on," said Matt, clealy intrigued.

"Well we think that if Max sees someone else hitting on Alec and spending a lot of time with him she'll get really jealous, well we know that. Then with some helpful nudges from various people she will see that he's resisting the decoy's charms even though they are technically not going out anymore, be touched and see how trustworthy he is."

"Woah Jondy, I don't know what you've heard but neither me nor Alec are into other dudes! I mean have you been talking to Carl, cause . . ."

Jondy rolled her eyes, "No I don't wan't _you_ to be the decoy!" she said half laughing. "I wanted you to _find_ us a good decoy! We figured you'd know someone for the job. You know, someone who he gets on well with and who could really make Max tick."

"Oooooooooooooo," said Matt. "That makes much more sense. But what if he doesn't resist the decoy's charms?"

"I have every faith in him that he will," said Jonday, confidently. "But if not then I'm sure we'll be able to form a queue in orderly fashion to kick the living shit clean outta him," she said with a grin. "So you got anyone in mind?"

"Yeah actually, I think I do. Her name is Alice, she just arrived in Terminal CIty today but her and Alec go way back. She was in our elite unit for a while and her and Alec did a couple of long term missions together. If you ask me there was always a little sexual tension between them. I was talking to her earlier and apparently she's been spending her time mainly in New York, studying drama."

Jondy raised an eyebrow as he continued, "Apparently," he said. "She's became quite the little actress, which should come in rather handy."

"Sounds good," said Jondy, nodding her approval.

"Oh you haven't heard the best bit yet," said Matt, a devillish grin appearing on his face. "She's tall."

"Ooooohh," said Jondy. "That's good! How tall we talking here?"

"Very tall, easily the same height as Alec."

"Wow that's really going to piss Max off. She's always had a thing about her height," said Jondy, standing up. "You've been very helpful. Fill her in and bring her by Zane's later."

"Sure, oh and Jondy - she's a blonde."

"God I love the way you think!" said Jondy, walking out of the bar, pleased that they had found the perfect girl to get Max's jealousy engine in overdrive.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"Hey Max!" said Dix running up to her. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure Dix, what's up?" she asked, holding Jen in her arms.

"Well after a few X6's had a close call today we found out that the familiars have figured out some new way to detect transgenics, though we are not sure what exactly. It could be pretty dangerous to us, especially since we have more and more transgenics coming here each day there are bound to be loads in the Seattle area, who could easily be caught. Now I did some digging and found a facility were some are being held. It's heavily guarded in a built up area so it's going to require some planing."

"Ugh we so don't need this right now," said Max worriedly. "Ok gather a team to get working out finding out the specifics of this device, we need to know exactly what we're up against and how to avoid being identified ourselves. Also try and find out how many transgenics need rescuing and I'm going to need maps, blue prints, the works."

"Already on it," said Dix.

"Great, also could you put up a notice about a mandatory emerency meeting in HQ in two hours. I'm going to need the usual plus tactical and weapon experts," said Max.

"Sure thing Max," said Dix, running off to get to work.

"Looks like it's back to the nursery for you sweetie," mumbled Max regretfully to Jen. "I'll make it up to you I promise," she said, kissing her head.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Alec tried to relax as he lined up his next shot. 'Damn!' he thought as he potted the black ball, which would have been great if it weren't for all the other balls he still had to pot.

"Dude, what'd the matter with you?" asked Sketchy, "You've been loosing all night!"

"Sorry Sketch," said Alec, running his hand through his hair. "I guess I'm just distracted."

"Well if you were this distracted more often I wouldn't be so broke all the time," said Sketchy. "We need more beer. This one's on me, buddy," he said walking away with the crisp twenty in his hand that he had just won from Alec.

Alec rolled his eyes as he set the table up for the next game. He had headed out to Crash under Matt's advise to try and escape from everything for a couple of hours but no matter how hard he tried, Alec could stop thinking about TC and the familiars and most of all he couldn't stop thinking about Max.

Alec sighed as he chalked his cue. "A little birdie told me I could find you here," said a familiar voice behind him.

Alec spun round in surprise, "Alice!" he said, his eyes lighting up.

"The one and only!" she said with a cocky grin.

"How the hell have you been!" he asked as he gave her a hug.

"Pretty damn good!" she said, half laughing.

"Kim said that she'd seen you in New York a while back and that you'd been going by the name of Alice but I'd no idea you were in Seattle!" said Alec, delighted to see his old friend.

"Yeah well I only arrived in TC this morning, saw your message in an Eyes Only broadcast last week, very clever of you," she said, a grin on her face. "So what about you, how's life been treating ya?"

"That's a very complicated question," said Alec, his smile faltering a little.

"Hey, Alec!" said Sketchy, arriving on the scene with a fresh pitcher or beer. "Are you going to introduce me to your friend?" he asked looking Alice up and down appreciatively, as Alec's pager went off.

"Nope," he said looking down at it. "Sorry Sketch gotta blaze," he said as he grabbed his leather jacket and put it on.

"I'll come too," said Alice. "Nice meeting you," she said politely to Sketchy, before exiting quickly after Alec.

"Yeah," said Sketchy, "It woulda been!" as he whistled after her.

7777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"So you been in Seattle since we got out?" asked Alice as her and Alec quickly made their way to TC.

"Uh mostly," said Alec. "But I was in Vancouver for over a year on a mission for Eyes Only, taking down the New Manticore."

"So you haven't really had much of a break then?" she asked.

"You've no idea," said Alec. "I mean don't get me wrong, when I got out I was this lazy, self-absorbed womaniser and I _really_ enjoyed that, but I don't know it just got boring after a while. I need something to challenge me."

"Or someone?" asked Alice.

"Yeah," said Alec. "Unfortunately that someone is proving to be a little _too_ challenging at the moment."

"Oh so you're seeing someone?" said Alice, putting a little bit if disapointment in her voice. "Is it serious?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" asked Alice incredulously.

"Well it was serious but now . . . look no offence but I have enough people trying to get me to talk about it and I really don't want to."

"Ok," said Alice, knowing when to back off.

"So what about you?" asked Alec to lighten the mood. "Any special guy in you life?"

"Yes," said Alice. "Several. Each one as equally special and as unaware of each other as the other."

Alec laughed, "Typical!"

"Hey just cause you've changed your ways doesn't mean I have to follow your example! Besides I do have the occasional relationship, I'm just not the settling down type."

"I missed you, you know that?" said Alec, after a few moments walking along in a comfortable silence.

"And who wouldn't?" she demanded to know with an innocent look on her face.

77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"Is everyone here?" asked Max looking around HQ.

"Almost," said Zane, gesturing to Alec's empty chair.

"Well we'd best starting then," said Max looking down.

"Maybe we should wait just a bit longer," said Jace. "I mean I know Alec hasn't been a meeting regular recently but I just can't see him bailing on a meetin that Dix paged him as 911 for."

"Yeah and I gave him a good talking to about ignoring his SIC responsibilities," said Jondy.

"Fine," said Max with a sigh, "But if he isn't here in fi . . ."

"Sorry I'm late," said Alec at that moment, stumbling into HQ with Alice. He gave an apologetic look around the room before meeting Max's eyes. Their gazes were locked for just a moment, both trying to say what they couldn't, before Alec broke the stare and sat down hurriedly in his seat beside Jondy.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" asked Max, confused coming out of her daze and catching sight of Alice, who Alec had came in with.

"Oh hey, I'm Alice," she said. "Just got in today. Was passing when I saw the notice, I was tactical officer for the elite unit at Manticore."

"She was the tactical officer's CO," said Cam, another tactical officer, vouching for her.

"Oh right," said Max, looking her up and down, a strange feeling working it's way through her stomach. "Well , Alice, take a seat, we're really going to need your help with this . . ."

Jondy tried to hide the smug look on her face when she saw the forced smile on Max's face and that jealous look in her eyes. She shared knowing looks with all of her siblings and then raised a superior eyebrow at Matt.

Matt who was standing at the back of the room grinned, and gave Jondy a small bow. He had to admit it, the girl knew what she was doing.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

A/N: There you have it. Oooh I'm so nervous about posting this! What if no-one reviews! Or even reads it! It's been so long and I'm so so so so sorry! If anyone cares I am going to try and update some Charmed fiction soon too. (Please review!)


	17. The One

The Surprise

Chapter 17: The One.

A/N: Usual apologies for the lack of updates and also for typos as I don't have spellcheck. Also I have now become very unfamiliar with this story so any continuity errors that you pick up on please let me know! Also an apology for how crap this chapter is-but I figured it was better than none at all ever again.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

When the meeting broke up, Max busied herself by shuffling about the few papers that were in front of her while watching Alec and Alice talk at the other end of the room from the corner of her eye. Despite everything that had happened the last few weeks Max could not help herself; she was insanely jealous. Alec had not spoken to her in almost a week and there he was talking to another woman, one that he obviously got on with very well.

Max looked Alice up and down and became very self-concious. Haven taken in that Alice was the same height as Alec, Max shuffled her feet awkwardly and felt all of a sudden ashamed of her compact frame. Max stood up straight, determined to use what little height she did have as much as she could, adamant that the best things came in small packages. Then she found herself asking why the tall woman also had to be blonde. Her hair was not just blonde it was that super shiny shampoo advert worthy blonde that was sure to make Alice be noticed in the most crowded rooms. If that was not bad enough why did their names both have to begin with the same letter? Max found herself wondering. Never before had Max found alliteration so threatening.

The final kick in the teeth came when she had finished sizing Alice up and turned her 'subtle' glances towards Alec and she saw him break into a smile. All of the times she had saw him in the last week he had looked completely blank and there he was, talking to a tall, blonde woman and smiling what Max was certain was the first smile that had crossed his face since she accused him of cheating. She stole one last look at Alec and the lopsided grin that she had come to love and then left the room as quickly as she could without being too obvious about it. A block away, she broke into a run only stopping several minutes later to let her breath and her tears catch up with her as she wondered once again what she had done.

A while later, after pulling herself together Max was heading back into the centre of Terminal City when Matt came up to her. "Hey Max, hows it going?" he asked cheerfully.

"Fine."

"Are you OK?" he inquired, noticing her strained smile.

"Yeah," she insisted with a sigh, "It's just . . . "

"Alice?" Matt asked knowingly.

"Am I that transparent?"

"Sort of," teased Matt. "It's just natural I guess, I mean you two aren't even on speaking terms yet and then all of a sudden this new girl pops up on to the scene who he has all this history with and..."

"History? They have history?" quizzed Max, a frown on her face.

"Uh, yeah," said Matt. "Didn't you know?"

"Well I only met her for the first time in today's meeting and I assumed they knew each other because, well, they came in together and looked quite friendly and then I found out that they were both in the elite unit back at Manticore so yeah I guess I did know," she said, trailing off. "But when you say 'history,' do you mean that they were involved?"

"Not as far as I know, but the rest of the unit did wonder about those two," Matt admitted, knowing that he had to make Alice seem like as much as a threat as possible.

"Oh," murmured Max.

"Hey, don't sweat it, I'm sure Alec is in no mood to 'go a courting ' at the moment," Matt assured her. "Besides you probably shouldn't be thinking like that cause it ain't going to help the situation. Well I'd best be off, I told Jondy I'd check in with her about ten minutes ago...I am so getting my ass kicked. Later Max," he said running off, leaving Max alone with her traitorous thoughts.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Matt entered the bar and scanned around until he spotted Jondy and Alice. "Hey guys, sorry I was running late," he said joining them. "Don't be sorry, be punctual," Jondy scolded. "So any news?" she asked.

"Well I was just talking to Max a few minutes ago and I am happy to report that we are right on schedule," he informed them.

"Good," said Jondy. "Phase three is go, Alice you're up."

"Sure thing," said Alice, with no intention of moving. "What?" she asked when she realised Jondy and Matt were looking at her expectantly. "Oh you meant right now?" Alice sighed and made a big fuss of getting up. "Fine, any clues about where I can find her?"

"Try her office," Matt suggested, "I think she was heading for HQ when I left her."

"You guys so owe me for this just in case I haven't mentioned it before," she said with a smile.

"Oh you have, but only a few hundred times," teased Jondy.

"Really? I didn't think I was that subtle," said Alice.

"Hey don't foret that you are not supposed to know anything about Max and Alec as a couple if you want to do this right," Jondy reminded her. "Just be sure to talk Alec up in a way that will make Max jealous but also re-examine their relationship and . . ."

"You certainly are bossy to the nice people who are giving up a considerable amount of their free time to do you a favour," Alice retorted.

"Well I like things done right," said Jondy, "I'm just a bit of a perfectionist. Besides, Alec is your friend too."

"Yeah I know and I want to help him get over this so we can go partying because while mopey Alec is not without his charm I want fun Alec back," said Alice.

"We all do," said Matt.

"Right then I'd best be off, catch you later. "Man it sure is going to be nice not having to do my own laundry for the next six months," she said walking off.

"Keep dreaming!" Jondy called after her laughing. "Matt I gotta tell you, you were so right about Alice, she is the perfect woman to drive Max to distraction and new realms of jealousy."

"Man I love being right! Not that it happens very often so I gotta savour it when it does," said Matt, leaning back and taking a deep, satisfied breath as Jondy watched amused, with a quizzical eyebrow raised. "OK, I'm done with the savouring," he said reluctantly.

"Thank God for that."

"So you and Alice are getting on well?" inquired Matt.

"Yeah, she's great," said Jondy. "She actually reminds me of Max in a lot of ways, only less intense- no wonder her and Alec get on so well."

"You should say that in front of Max."

"Wow, you are really on a roll recently with good ideas! I'm impressed," laughed Jondy.

"It is a blessing and it's a curse," Matt joked.

"I think I prefered it when you were savouring."

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Max did not bother looking up when she heard the knock on her office door, "Come in," she murmered, pouring over the papers in front of her.

"Hey Max," said Alice, "Sorry to interrupt."

"Oh no, don't worry about it, I'm not doing anything particularly important," said Max with a forced smile.

"I doubt that," said Alice. "I mean you're the leader of a transgenic city, I'm sure you are not in here figuring out what colour to paint the nursery."

"Not quite," Max admitted, just wanting to get as far away from Alice as possible.

"So I just wanted to pop by and introduce myself to you properly, I mean the rest of the meeting lot seem to know you pretty well and if I'm going to be attending regularly as well I didn't just want to be the random who dandered in with the SIC one day, you know?" said Alice.

"Yeah I get that, it is getting a little cliquey around here I guess," said Max, whose stomach churned at the mention of Alice entering with Alec. "So you were in Alec's unit back in Manticore?"

"Yeah, he's great isn't he?" said Alice, smiling.

"You're telling me, I mean I couldn't have done all of this without him," said Max, a note of sadness in her voice.

"Yeah he has a way of making everything seem less complicated and he has this amazing energy that can inject some fun into everything you know?" said Alice. "Well he normally does anyway, but he just seems so down, he's lost a little of his spark." Max's forced smile faded as a meaningless noise passed her lips. "I can tell he has been hurt by someone, badly from the looks of it but he doesn't want to talk about it and I'm not the sort to go around digging around for gossip. All I know is that whoever the girl is she is a damn idiot to let Alec get away, that's for sure."

"Can't argue with you there," said Max. "Alec and I didn't always get along but I can honestly say he is one of the best guys I know. He's just there for everything you could need him for. "

"I know what you mean," said Alice, feeling bad for Max but knowing she had to keep dishing out what she needed to. "Alec is just that guy. The one that you go out with when you want to party, the one that would cheat on you with your mother and your sister, probably at the same time but if you could just get him to settle down he could be _the_ one. Unfortunately you know that he isn't going to settle down until he finds the one, his one, the one who he will give everything to and bully for her whoever she is but to me he will always be the one who got away," she said with a tone of regret and a wistful smile.

"You two were involved?" Max asked softly, both women now pretending to be completely oblivious to the other's history with Alec

"Not exactly," said Alice. "Came close a couple of times but something always got in the way. God listen to me going on about Alec like this, I sound pathetic! He's just so amazing and I'm really glad to have him back in my life though if he ever hears any of what I've just said I'll never hear the end of it!"

"Well your seceret is safe with me," Max promised.

"I'd best be off," said Alice, with a look of embarrassment about her. "I've monopolised enough of your time gushing over a guy that I never even dated."

"Well he's a good topic, I can't blame you," said Max. "Thanks for dropping by."

"Sure thing, if there's ever anything I can do for you just let me know," Alice offered.

"Sure thing," said Max.

"Later!"

Max took a deep sigh and thought about what Alice had said, some of it had really stuck a chord with her, especially some of the things she had said about the 'one.' What if she was Alec's one, the one he was going to settle down for and give everything to? Then, suddenly she stopped contemplating this notion because she knew in her hearts that she was, and that he was her one too.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

"Hey Jondy how are the medical centre getting on?" asked Alec, passing her.

"Oh I haven't been there yet, was going to head there in a few minutes," said Jondy.

"OK no problem," said Alec, "Just be sure to keep me posted."

"Sure thing, oh what time is it?"

"Just after six," said Alec, checking his watch.

"Dammit! I'm late to meet up with Zane about some stuff and I still have to make it over to the medical centre!" said a flustered Jondy. "Could you do me a favour and hand these to Max?" she asked, holding out a few sheets of paper. "It's just some tunnel maps I found in one of the older buildings and I promised I would get them to her."

"Jondy, if this is some screwed up plan to try and get me and Max talking then I got to tell you that..."

"Oh please Alec, I'm in a hurry here and would really appreciate it," Jondy said.

"Fine, go, see you later."

"Thanks, owe you!" said Jondy running off to look for Zane. Alec sighed looking down at the maps. He headed for HQ knowing this is where Max could usually be found and that he might as well get this over with. He walked casually in the direction of HQ, trying to keep his composure despite the fact that his heart was racing and he was feeling quite jittery. He always felt this nervous when he saw Max recently. He was constantly worried that he would take one look at her and immediately forgive her for everything and he did not want to do that. He was not ready to do that. "Hey Joe is Max in there?" he asked an X6 who had just came out of HQ. "No, I think someone said she was round at the nursery." "OK thanks man," said Alec with a quick nod of gratitude before heading for the nursery.

When he got there he saw Max with Jen in her arms, talking to Sally, one of the transgenics in charge of daycare in Terminal City. "Hey Max," he said cautiously.

"Alec!" said Max, caught of guard. "Sorry I didn't hear that you were picking her up tonight or I would have..."

"No, it's fine...I mean I wasn't...I was just..." Unusually flustered, Alec took a deep breath and started again. "Jondy just asked me to get these maps to you, she had like ten things to do at once and asked me to help her out a bit," he explained.

"_She_ has a lot of stuff to do! She should try running the place!" said Max jokingly.

"Actually I think she kind of does at the moment," said Alec. "You know with neither of us exactly being at the top of our game right now."

They looked at each other awkwardly before breaking the stare and both of them quickly looking away. "Well I better go," said Alec, walking over and kissing Jen on the top of her head. "See you around."

"Alec..." said Max as he started to walk off. Alec stopped in his tracks but did not turn around. "It might sound silly but I just wanted you to know that...well...I miss you. More than I thought would be possible and I..."

"Max," Alec sighed, hanging his head. "I just need..."

"More time," said Max in an almost whisper. "I know, I just needed to say it."

Alec started walking again before stopping and looking over his shoulder, "For what it is worth, I miss you too." As he walked out Max found tears tripping down her cheeks again as she pulled Jen closer to her.

Twenty minutes later when Max was heading back to her apartment Jace came running up to her. "Max we are on red alert, Ames White was spotted outside the perimeter they need you at HQ right now."

"What?" asked Max incredulous, "Is he alone? How much do we know?"

"He was spotted alone but other than that we know very little," Jace admitted. "Here, give Jen to me and I will get her back to the nursery."

"OK," said Max reluctantly, giving Jen a quick cuddle and kiss before handing her over to her sister. "Be careful."

"You too," said Jace, taking off with Jen in her arms and Max broke into a run towards headquarters. "What's going on?" she asked upon arriving in HQ.

"We have people stationed at all the known entrances and exits to TC but have not heard anything back from any of them yet," said Zane who was holding a walkie talkie in his hand, anxiously awaiting any news.

"OK well lets assemble teams to do a sweep through of TC incase he has already penetrated the perimeter," said Max and two X6s promptly got up and left to make sure these orders were carried out. "I don't want anybody walking about alone, I want people in groups, make them get together in their units if they have to." More poeple left to get these orders sent about as Alec burst into TC. "Is everyone OK, I just heard," he said.

"Everyone is fine as far as we know," said Max.

"What about...?"

"Jace is bringing her back to the nursery," Max filled in, anticipating what he was going to ask.

"Good," said Alec. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see now. If there is nothing else I can do here I'm going to go join one of the teams that I assume are assembling outside to sweep TC."

"Go, things seem to be under control here," said Max.

"OK," said Alec.

"Just..."

"Be careful, I know," said Alec with a smirk. "Since I've met you it has kind of became my mantra."

"Alright people talk to me," said Max when he left. "What could White want? I mean Jace said he was spotted alone, even he isn't going to do much damage by himself in a city of transgenics."

"Maybe he just figured 'if you want something done right you better do it yourself,'" suggested Mole. "That's something I realise every damn day around here."

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Half an hour later and the teams had finished their sweep of Terminal City and found no sign of Ames. "Maybe he was just passing by," Alec suggested. "Man have I really become that naive?"

"Well nobody has heard or seen anything," said Syl, "So maybe it was just a false alarm I mean..."

Syl trailed off as the door swung open and an out of breath Jace stumbled in. Her siblings rushed towards her as a sudden feeling of dread washed over both Max and Alec. "White..." she got out. "He has Jen."

Max suddenly felt very dizzy, her head was spinning and her vision was blurred as intense grief and fear over took her. She snapped out of it when she felt familiar strong arms steady her. "Easy there," said Alec, his voice quivering. Max turned to look at him slowly, "What are we going to do?" she asked, bursting into tears as Alec cradled her in his arms as she sobbed into his chest. There was a moment of silence in HQ other than Max's crying. "We're going to kill White and save our daughter," said Alec determindely with a blank expression on his face.


End file.
